Sweet and Sometimes Sour
by girlpandagreenlime
Summary: When Vanellope and the crew discover a new character in Sugar Rush, they learn that she's a real glitch who wants to know why she was created a glitch. Unfortuately, her glitching comes with a price: A single touch from any person can cause chaos to her system. What happens when an old enemy comes along and learns about this fragile girl? Read to find out!
1. Chapter 1

Hey there! I know it's been a while since I've been on here, and I'm sorry. I'm just really busy at this point in my life. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this first chapter of this new story! Oh, and by the way, I don't own Wreck-It-Ralph, but Lemona is my OC. I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 1

The first time President Vanellope Van Schweetz heard the rumours about a creature living in the Black Liquorice Forest, she assumed it was something that wouldn't cause a problem, so long as it didn't leave the forest. The solution to the chaos seemed simple at the time. She decreed that nobody was to enter the forest under any circumstances. It seemed like the perfect solution. The Black Liquorice Forest was the only part of Sugar Rush that didn't have a race track, apart from the Diet Cola Mountain, so there was really no point in anybody going there anyway. She knew her friend Fix-it Felix from one of the other games in the arcade would have been proud of her ability to fix the problem before it got bigger.

Time passed, and the solution seemed to work. The rumours slowly faded away, and with it, the fear that had swept over her subjects. But no sooner had it disappeared than it came back even worse then it had been in the first place. One of her subjects, a troublesome trickster named Gloyd Orangeboar, had decided to disobey her command and visit the forest. He had come back with tears streaming down his face screaming, "Cybug, Cybug! There's a Cybug in the forest!" Because of Sugar Rush's first experience with Cybugs, Vanellope decided that she couldn't take any chances. Being the president, it was her responsibility to protect her subjects, no matter how badly they had treated her before she'd become their ruler. Besides, if any of the gamers in the arcade had noticed a Cybug in her game, Vanellope knew they would be unplugged, and there was no way she was letting that happen. She'd just started ruling the place, and she didn't want to lose it. So as soon as she'd heard Gloyd's cries, she had dashed over to the home of the first person she'd thought of: Wreck it Ralph.

Now she, Ralph, Fix it Felix, who was the hero in Ralph's game, and Felix's wife Sergeant Calhoun were all creeping through the dark forest, looking for any indication of the presence of a Cybug. The only one of them who held what would be considered a weapon was Calhoun, gripping a heavy duty machine gun from her own game, a science fiction adventure game by the name of Hero's Duty. At any other time, thinking of the name of her game would have made Vanellope snicker, but the seriousness of what the group was doing kept her from doing so. She may have been able to think up other meanings for the word 'duty,' but Cybugs were no laughing matter. The last time they had been in Sugar Rush, they had almost destroyed the entire game.

"Are you sure Gloyd saw a Cybug, Vanellope?" Ralph finally asked. They had been walking for a half an hour straight and seen no sign of a horrifying bug in the area. "He could have just been pulling a prank on you guys. He does like doing that."

Vanellope shook her head. "I don't know. Gloyd may like tricking us, but he's never done something so severe that he would pretend to cry. Besides, he was here when the Cybugs attacked. So he should know that they're no joking matter."

"Maybe he just saw a shadow of something, got spooked, and assumed it was a Cybug," Felix suggested. His golden hammer was clutched firmly in his grasp, even though it would be no help if he had to fight. Ironically, his hammer would not destroy what it hit. Instead, it magically repaired anything, except for the codes of gamers.

Just as Vanellope was about to speak again, there was a crack coming some distance ahead of them. At the sound, everybody tensed up, and Calhoun loaded her gun. "Alright, everyone get behind me. If it's a Cybug, I'm gonna teach it my definition of the word 'pain.'

The noise continued and as the team crept up towards the source of the sound, it only seemed to get louder, only now it sounded like crunching. As they got closer, they began to see something in front of them. Covered entirely in black, it was on its knees and it looked like it was eating something. Immediately, Calhoun held out her gun and hollered, "Freeze, SCUM!"

The creature turned its head towards the group. When it saw the gun pointed in its direction, it screamed and threw its arms up, hands towards the sky, dropping whatever candy from the forest that it had been eating. It stayed on the ground, too scared to move. The group was too far away to see the creature's face, but they could tell that it wasn't a Cybug by the way it screamed. Instead of a horrible mechanical shriek of a monster, it sounded like a nine year old girl who thought she'd seen a monster underneath her closet. However, they still had to figure out what had caused all of the commotion.

After approaching the creature, they all saw that whatever it was was wearing a black cloak that concealed its entire body, the reason why they hadn't been able to tell what the thing was. Calhoun kept her gun aimed at the creature while Ralph grabbed a hold of the hood on the cloak. Pulling so hard that the thing was forced to stand, he pulled back the hood of the cloak and revealed exactly what it had sounded like: a nine year old girl so petrified that she was about to have an accident.

"Back off, guys!" Vanellope demanded after seeing what all the fuss was about. Seeing the terror in the girl's green eyes and the tears streaming down her rosy cheeks made her feel terrible about what had just happened. After Ralph had released her, the girl stood frozen in front of them all, too scared to run away. Vanellope approached her and tried speaking in a calm and soothing manner that she usually adapted when another racer got too upset about losing or not being able to race. "Hey, hey, relax. Take it easy. It's going to be okay."

The girl sniffed and made eye contact with Vanellope, who couldn't help noticing what a deep shade of green they were, like the peel of a lime. Before Vanellope tried speaking again, those eyes narrowed into little slits, and before Vanellope knew it, the girl was ranting! "'Relax,' you say. 'Take it easy,' you say. Well that's _easy_ for YOU to say! You weren't just held at gunpoint for no good reason, now were you? So now _I_ say that no, no, it is definitely NOT going to be okay! It is not going to be okay at ALL!"

Startled by the furious outburst, Vanellope stumbled back and tripped over her feet. As she fell, Felix, who was now behind her, caught her before any damage could be done. Vanellope smiled up at him gratefully, then spoke to her team. "Well, I don't think she's scared anymore."

Realizing what she had just said, the girl paled, and then smacked herself in the face, groaning, "Oh sour lemonade. Now I sound like a twit," to herself. She remained with her head in her hand for a little while longer, and then looked up again. "I'm so sorry."

"Now don't feel sorry kiddo," Felix said, giving her his sweet hero's smile. "We all understand. If anything, we should be sorry for giving you such a fright. Allow me to introduce myself."

"Ah, ah ah!" Vanellope interrupted him, putting her hands on her hips. This was her game, and she wanted to do the introductions in it. "I'm the ruler of this place, let me do it!" Turning back to the mysterious girl, Vanellope pointed to each person she named. "Gorilla Hands over there is Ralph. Hammer Boy's name is Felix, and Commander Chaos' name is Sergeant Calhoun. As for me, I'm President Vanellope Van Schweetz, leader of the land of Sugar Rush. What's your name? And how come I've never seen you in Sugar Rush before?"

"Um, well," the mystery girl began, slightly stuttering through her words, "My name is Lemona Lime, and I…I…I…"

Suddenly the little girl pixelated and her blue pixels that made up her code were quickly revealed for the group to see. The child seemed unable to speak or move at all as the twitching and rearranging went on. A good minute passed before it finally stopped and the girl looked normal again. She appeared to be slightly dazed, but seemed to realize what she'd just done because after it was over, she buried her head in her hands again and moaned, "Oh, not again."

"Sweet mother of monkey milk!" exclaimed Vanellope, her mouth agape along with everybody else's. "Lemona, you just glitched!"

The little girl's eyes rose up to meet Vanellope's hazel ones again, and she removed her hands to reveal a face freshly tear-stained. It seemed Lemona was feeling quite ashamed about what had just happened. "Is that what you call it? I wish I could get it to stop. It hurts so much."

"This is all way too cuckoo to be dealing with in the middle of this code-forsaken forest," Calhoun spoke up, saying what the males in the group had been thinking. "Let's get out of here and bring this kid to the castle. There we can find out all the details we need."

Vanellope nodded, agreeing with the sergeant, but she didn't look at her. Instead, she held out her hand, ready to rest it on Lemona's shoulder. "Come on Lemona. It's going to be okay." But as her hand stretched out, Lemona backed up, her face paling once again and her green eyes widening. She looked terrified again, though Vanellope wasn't sure why. "Don't touch me. Please, don't touch me."

Unfortunately for her, Vanellope wasn't a good listener. "Hey, it's okay. Come on." She continued to advance until Lemona was pinned with her back against a tree, still pleading, "Please, please don't." It wasn't until Vanellope's hand was resting on her cloak covered shoulder that she realized why.

The moment her hand touched Lemona's body, Lemona stiffened, and her body began to pixelate again, but this time it was much more violent. It was so bad, that electric shocks began radiating off of her body, one of them hitting Vanellope's hand. "Ow!" she cried, immediately taking it off of her new friend. As soon as her hand left Lemona's shoulder, the pixelating stopped again, but Lemona was frozen in place.

"Lemona? Lemona, are you okay?" Instantly, everybody was crowding around her again, this time with faces filled with concern and not fear of her. Timidly, Vanellope took a step towards her. "Lemona?" There was no movement. Vanellope started waving her left hand in front of Lemona's face, and was about to call out "Hello?" when suddenly Lemona's left hand started moving in synch with Vanellope's. "Huh?" Vanellope stopped, and watched as Lemona stopped moving too. She took a couple of steps back to give Lemona some space, then started to jump in a circle waving her hands crazily up and down. Sure enough, Lemona copied her actions exactly up until Vanellope stopped.

"Okay, what the heck is going on?" Sergeant Calhoun demanded, her face getting even more serious by the second.

Vanellope grinned in response. "I don't know, but it's kinda cool!"

"No!" Frozen in place again, Lemona was finally able to speak and get the others to notice. Unfortunately, because she was frozen, it was very difficult for her to form her words, as her mouth was frozen as well. "It's not cool. Because you touched me, now YOU'RE in control of my actions!"

"WHAT?" Ralph, Felix, and Sergeant Calhoun all exclaimed, completely missing Vanellope's wide and fascinated smile.

"Oh goodness gracious golly!" gasped Felix. "How do we stop it?"

"You've got to feed me a chunk of a black liquorice tree," Lemona instructed through her frozen mouth. "And that means Vanellope's gotta eat it too."

Now it was Vanellope's turn to say, "WHAT?" The smile vanished in a flash, and a disgusted grimace took its place. "But black liquorice is so NASTY! I don't even know why an entire forest full of it was programmed into my game! No kid in their right mind would eat this stuff."

"Come on kid, you owe the girl. After all, she told you not to touch her," Acting like the big brother that Vanellope had come to see him as, Ralph broke off a strip of black liquorice from the nearest tree and handed it to her. Vanellope reached out and took it subconsciously, not even realizing until it was too late that Lemona was doing what she was doing again. Looking at the vile treat with her lips curled in disgust, Vanellope sighed. "Alright, fine. I'll do it." Suddenly an idea seemed to hit her, and she looked back at Lemona, who was now looking at her. "But can I do one more thing? Come on, PLEASE?" She clasped her hands together and gave one of her famous begging faces, mentally smiling when Lemona returned it perfectly. As she copied Vanellope, Lemona sighed. "Fine. But hurry it up! I'd prefer to choose my own actions, thank you very much."

"Okay," Vanellope rubbed her hands together with glee, and then did what she'd planned. There was a jump with a half turn in the air first. Then, when the two girls landed on their feet, they both bent over and started shaking their booties left to right, while rolling their hands around and around each other like a bunch of barrels. As she danced, Vanellope couldn't help singing a bit too. "Oh yeah. Uh huh. Oh yeah. Uh huh." After approximately three minutes had passed, she stopped and gave a smile. "Okay. I'm good." Then with a grimace, she put half of the black liquorice stick in her mouth and bit it off. Together, the girls chewed the liquorice with scrunched up faces, and finally with great difficulty, they swallowed. Once the liquorice hit their stomachs, Lemona began jerking and writhing like she was having a seizure. No pixelation occurred, but a million little lightning bolts coursed in and out of her body, creating a terrible crackling sound. When it was finally over, she shakily held out a hand, turning it from side to side as though checking to make sure it was working. Once she was sure that she was back in control, Lemona let out a sigh of relief. "Whew."

No sooner had she let out the sigh when Sergeant Calhoun grabbed her by the scruff of her cloak and Vanellope by the back of her hoodie. Scowling at them both, she uttered two words that let them know she meant business:

"Castle. NOW."

As they turned and walked out towards the forest's exit, all felt better knowing that the thing Gloyd had seen was really no danger to Vanellope's home. But none of them considered the fact that there may have still been an evil presence hiding in the forest.

Please send me a review and let me know what you think! But please be kind!


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks for the great reviews so far guys! I'm glad you're enjoying it. Please enjoy this second chapter, and remember, I don't own Wreck-It-Ralph. The only thing I own is my OC Lemona Lime.

Chapter 2

Lemona Lime couldn't believe it. She'd only existed for approximately a month, and all of that time had been spent in the dark Black Liquorice Forest. Sitting on a chair made from a sweet jawbreaker in the president's castle was not one of the things she'd pictured herself doing in life. The cup of hot cocoa in her hands trembled and shook and the liquid inside sloshed around. This is where she kept her eyes, while the four characters that had led her here watched her silently. Personally, she would have preferred a cool glass of lemonade; lemons and limes were kind of her thing, hence her name. But there was no way that she would have rejected the president's offer. Lemona still couldn't believe that a girl her age was ruling an entire land, but she'd existed long enough to know at least some manners, and didn't think it would be a good idea to comment. So she kept her mouth silent, something she was good at. She had been living by herself in a forest inhabited only by black liquorice eating ravens that would rather peck her than listen to her. Needless to say, there wasn't really anybody to talk to except herself, and Lemona had never really been fond of the idea. After all, there were already two things wrong with her. Why add to the list if she could help it?

"Speaking of problems," she thought to herself as a spasm rippled through her body once again. That was the tenth time she'd pixelated and frozen in the half hour since she'd met the four characters who had thought she was a monster. It was a miracle she hadn't dropped her cup.

Suddenly the scary blonde who'd pointed the gun at Lemona's face stood up with a cry of frustration. "We've watched her long enough. All she's doing is glitching and staring at her drink. If we want answers we're going to have to start asking the kid some questions." She jabbed her pointer finger in Lemona's direction and started barking out questions. "You! How did you get here? How did you become a glitch? And what's up with the whole, 'touch me and you control me' thing? Answer me, kid!"

As intimidating as the lady was, Lemona felt her sour attitude boiling up inside of her. Normally she was able to maintain a sweet persona, but there were some things that made her lose it. Usually it had to do with the ravens in the forest, but this woman and her rudeness were quickly becoming the second and third most angering things Lemona had ever encountered. If they kept it up, they would soon be first and second.

"L-L-Look, this 'k-k-kid-d-d' has a n-n-name. It's Lemona," she snapped, ignoring the spasms of the pixels in her body as she spoke. When she was angry it was easy for her to forget everything, including glitches as these people had called them. And that was good, because she seemed to glitch more often than usual when she was angry. The only downside to her forgetting was that it made the pain after the glitching even more uncomfortable once she'd cooled down.

As she glitched, Lemona continued speaking. "I was created and p-p-put into this game a m-m-month ago when th-the arcade owner was giving it its upd-d-dates. As for my 'glitching' as you call it, I don't know w-w-why I do it. I have the same answer for my other issue; although I d-d-didn't know I had that problem-m-m until one of the ravens in the forest pecked me for the first t-t-time. That's why I w-wear the cloak." When she'd finally stopped glitching and had enough strength, she stretched out her arms in an attempt to show what she was talking about. She had not attempted to take off the cloak at all since she'd arrived in the castle, although she had untied the front of it, revealing her normal outfit underneath.

Once she'd made sure everybody understood what she was talking about, Lemona put her arms down and spoke again, her speech pattern finally normal. "It would have been nice if it was yellow, but it had to be black so that I'd be camouflaged in the forest. It's big enough to protect my entire body from getting pecked for the most part. The inside is coated with a hard sour candy, lemon flavoured of course, so when the birds do find and peck me, they can't get to my skin, and they get an unpleasant taste in their mouths. Sometimes they manage to peck hard enough that they actually hit me, but they eat the black liquorice all the time, so the side effects for me usually don't last long. But you would not believe how tiresome and painful it is flapping your arms for hours on end, trust me." At this confession, she couldn't help breaking out into a small smile. It did, honestly, sound ridiculous. Ralph and Felix smiled and chuckled too, though Vanellope got a blank look on her face. Finally Ralph had to tell her, "Birds flap their wings when they fly Vanellope." When she'd finally put two and two together, Vanellope was laughing too. Only Calhoun kept a straight face.

Once the laughter had died down, Vanellope wiped a tear from her eye and spoke to Lemona. "So why'd you stay in the Black Liquorice Forest for all that time? I'm a glitch too, you know. If you'd come to me I would have tried to help you out. I would have made sure you were safe."

"I thought about it a couple of times," admitted Lemona, running a hand through her yellow hair. Even though it was hidden underneath the cloak, Ralph, Felix, Vanellope, and Calhoun could see that it was so long that the tips grazed the floor.

Her hand still in her hair, Lemona grabbed a chunk and held it in front of her face, as though she was inspecting it for dead ends, though Vanellope assumed she just didn't want to look them in the eyes. Lemona had been doing that quite a bit in the small amount of time they'd known each other. Vanellope was no psychologist, but she suspected it had to do with the fact that Lemona seemed to be ashamed of herself. She made no comment, not wanting to make her new friend more uncomfortable. Instead she continued listening to Lemona speak.

"I think the reason I never actually did it was because I was scared," Lemona confessed, keeping her eyes down and on her hair. "I was scared that if I came out of hiding and tried to talk to the other characters they wouldn't like me or treat me well because of my…conditions. It seemed like because I had these issues, I wouldn't be able to do whatever it is that you guys do. I mean, why would a girl with glitches get programmed into a video game? If she doesn't work, what good is she? I still don't fully understand why I'm here. But it never occurred to me that there may be other people like me."

Now Vanellope knew what she was going to do. "Well, just because you're a glitch doesn't mean you can't do the things we do in this game." Standing up, she waved her hand at Lemona, indicating for her to follow. "Come on!"

"Where are we going?" Lemona asked, slowly getting up. She was still holding her cup, not thinking about setting it down.

"The bakery," smiled Vanellope, gesturing again. "We're going to bake you a cart so that you can race with us."

The news was so startling that as Lemona's eyes widened and her jaw dropped open, her code glitched again. This time when she froze and started pixelating, her hands changed into the blue pixels too, causing her to lose her grip on her cup. It fell to the ground with a crash, and the liquid flew out, only to get absorbed by the castle's candy floor. When the glitching stopped, she found herself still frozen in place, but not because of her condition. "Are…Are you serious?" She finally managed to choke out, overwhelmed by the offer. "But…But I've never raced in my life!"

"Relax kiddo," grinned Vanellope, knowing exactly what Lemona was going through. "If you're in this game, then racing's in your code. Trust me, with a little practice and a sweet ride, no pun intended, then you'll be a natural! Who knows? Maybe your glitching will help you out on the track! I know mine does."

In her entire month of existence, Lemona had never known such excitement. It was so overwhelming, that her code glitched twice in a short span of time. It hurt more than usual, causing her to wince, but she was so ecstatic that she was able to get over it quicker than she normally would have. "I…I can't believe it!" she finally burst out, a smile on her face growing rapidly. "You're actually serious?"

"Of course! Now come on!" Vanellope and her crew started walking towards the door, Lemona following eagerly behind Ralph, but at a bit of a distance to ensure that none of them accidentally glazed her. This was turning out to be the best day of her existence.

As they reached the door that would lead to one of the hallways in Vanellope's castle, it suddenly burst open before any of them could even grab a hold of the door handles. The person responsible was actually a little green ball of candy by the name of Sour Bill. Behind him were the fifteen racers that Vanellope ruled over. All of them looked to be in a state of panic except for Sour Bill, who looked bored as always. Lemona peeked out from behind Ralph to see what was going on, but the racers were too flustered to notice her.

"Princess, Princess, it's absolutely terrible." Even Sour Bill's tone of voice was boring, and it was easily unable to be heard over the loud, panicked ramblings of the racers by the others. Vanellope was used to having to block out the racers though, so she focussed on her assistant. "What's going on Sour Bill?"

"It's absolutely horrendous," Sour Bill told her. "It's…It's…It's…"

"Well, what are you waiting for?" demanded Vanellope. It didn't take much for the racers to get flustered, so she expected it to be something unimportant. She wanted to deal with it quickly so that she could help Lemona get her cart and learn to race. "Spit it out!"

The news Sour Bill told her was definitely not something unimportant: "It's Turbo. He's back in the game. We saw him in the Candy Cane Forest."

Hearing this, Vanellope gasped, and closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm herself down. Panicking was not going to help her in this dire situation. She was the President, and as such, she had to remain calm to reassure her subjects that she knew what she was doing. Looking down at Sour Bill, she put on her most determined face. "Sour Bill, keep all of the racers in the castle." Then she turned to her friends. "Ralph, Sergeant Calhoun, you're coming with me. Felix, stay with Lemona." Turbo was even more of a threat then the Cybugs, and they all knew that, except for Lemona, who watched the scene unfold in confusion.

Sergeant Calhoun was the first to respond to Vanellope's orders. "Alright people, you heard the little lady. Let's go!" In one fluent motion, she grabbed her gun from her gun belt and loaded it, an ugly scowl appearing on her face as she fell into the role that she'd become familiar with. The rest of the crew started obeying after her, the racers all running into the castle, and Ralph following the little girl and soldier out the door.

"Ralph!" Hearing his name, Ralph turned back to see Lemona and Felix. They had started to move away from the door, but stopped so Felix could call Ralph. The little hero looked very concerned. "Please be careful."

Ralph nodded to assure his friend that he would be alright, and then turned around again, starting to run to keep up with Vanellope and Calhoun.

They had dealt with Turbo once, they could do it again.

You know what to do, just read and review! Thanks again guys!


	3. Chapter 3

I can't believe the awesome reviews I've been getting! Thank you so much guys! I'm glad to know you like my story! The next time you reply, think you could tell me what it is that you like so much? I'm dying to know!

I don't own Wreck It Ralph. I only own my OC Lemona Lime. Here's Chapter 3. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 3

Vanellope had never believed in hate. Even when she was teased for being a glitch, pushed in the mud, or when her carts were destroyed, she'd always believed in forgiving and forgetting. She found that by doing so, sweet things always seemed to come her way, though she didn't really believe it was her attitude that caused the things to happen.

Yet as she, Ralph, and Sergeant Calhoun tramped through the Candy Cane Forest, on the lookout for Turbo, she couldn't hold back the horrible thoughts that were flooding her mind. She had never considered the idea that the murderous, power-hungry, sadistic poor excuse for a human being may have survived flying into a stream of diet cola lava. Now that the threat was very much alive, she was so angry that she couldn't help thinking about all of the ways she could make him suffer the way he'd made her suffer. "When we get a hold of him, I'm gonna throw him into the Fungeon to decay! I'll toss him into a pool of Nesquik Sand! Or better yet, I'll rip _his_ code apart piece by piece! Then he can see what it's like being a glitch!" In her candy coated heart she knew that she couldn't and wouldn't kill Turbo when they found him, but she found that unleashing her fury was making her feel a lot better.

Listening to his friend, Ralph turned to Sergeant Calhoun. "She's been spending too much time with you."

Then he focussed on Vanellope. "Listen kid, I know you're angry. I am too. But you've gotta calm down, otherwise you'll lose your focus. And if that happens, then we can't catch the little runt. And if we lose him, then who knows what he'll do to the arcade."

Vanellope opened her mouth to speak again, but was silenced by Sergeant Calhoun, who suddenly halted and held out her arm to make them stop too. "Hold up," she whispered, as she pointed with her gun towards an area of the forest ahead of them. Right in front of them, with his back turned towards them, was the despicable man himself: Turbo, who was in his King Candy form.

Ralph and Sergeant Calhoun knelt down so that they were head and head with Vanellope. "So what's the plan soldier?" Calhoun whispered again, holding her gun steady.

Vanellope turned her head to give Calhoun a sheepish grin. "Honestly? I was kind of hoping you'd have one. All I had was us coming here and finding him."

"You've got to be kidding me," Ralph groaned, only to be shushed again by Calhoun, who was using her military training to think up a plan.

"Alright. Wreck-It, I've got my hands full, so you're gonna have to grab him. I'll keep this thing focussed on him at all times, but you'd better hold onto him tight. If I have to fire I don't want to hit you. Once we've got him, you've got to grab the flashlight from my belt and flash it in his face kid. I want to make sure he's not hiding any Cybug coding in his system. Once we've determined what sort of threat he possesses, you get to decide what we do with him." At that point, a small smirk crossed Calhoun's face. "Personally, I think throwing him into the Nesquik sand isn't a bad idea." That remark earned her a vicious glare of disapproval from Ralph, but she didn't really care. The thrill of triumph after a fight would always be her favourite part of any game, and watching whatever Vanellope chose to do to the little worm would definitely be considered a triumph in Calhoun's mind.

Once Calhoun was sure everybody understood the plan, she gestured with her head to where Turbo was, indicating that Ralph could go. Nodding, Ralph took a deep breath before charging towards him, enormous hands up in the air and a roar escaping his mouth.

Hearing the noise, Turbo turned around, and when he saw Ralph charging towards him, he started running away as quickly as his feet could carry him. But Ralph was bigger then him, so easily caught up to the little man. Once he was close enough, Ralph enveloped the false king in his hands and held him up above the ground. Turbo squirmed and kicked, but Ralph barely even noticed it. Sergeant Calhoun ran up once she was sure that Ralph had a hold on him, keeping her gun fixed on the enemy, the muzzle inches away from his face. "Stop squirming unless you want that ugly mug blown right off your head, worm," she snarled, her look of contempt clear.

Terrified, Turbo opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off as Vanellope glitched from her original position in the forest to right in front of him. Seeing the little girl who'd ruined his perfect life in Sugar Rush, a taunting sneer crossed his face instantly. "Well, well, well. If it isn't Little Miss Princess Glitch."

Vanellope remained cool as she responded with, "That's President Glitch to you, fart breath." Removing her cool gaze from him for a moment, she grabbed the black flashlight from Calhoun's belt, and, finding the on/off switch, she turned it on and shone the bright light in Turbo's face. Instead of his eyes turning blue and entranced by the glow, Turbo squinted and turned his head, trying to escape its blinding glare. Vanellope kept the light trained on him for a while longer, but finally shut it off when Calhoun said, "Alright, the worm's clear."

"Don't you mean gummy worm?" Turbo quipped, sneering again. His yellow teeth were revealed in the wicked smile, making Vanellope want to wince, but she kept it together. The only things that revealed her revulsion were her cool tone and the glitch that coursed through her body as she spoke. "No, we don't. You see, gummy worms are sweet and delicious, and there is NOTHING sweet or delicious about you, TURBO." After she was finished her comeback, she knew exactly what she wanted to do with the horrible little man. "Ralph, please bring Mr. Bubble-Gum Butt to the fungeon."

At the mention of the fungeon, Turbo's face paled, and he began to protest. "What? No! You can't do that!"

Vanellope gave him one of her mischievous grins and spoke again. "I believe I just did. I am the leader of the place after all. Uh, doi! You of all people should know that, Mr. Tooth Decay." Here she paused and pretended to think carefully about something. "You know, normally I'd hold a vote to see whether this is what everybody wants, but in this case, I'm pretty sure I already know what everybody wants." Then she turned to Ralph. "Ralph, if you please. We'll wait for you in the castle."

Ralph nodded and started walking away with Turbo screaming, "No! You can't do this!" along with a number of threats towards the little president, who merely smiled as she listened to them. Waving goodbye to Turbo cheekily, she waited until he and Ralph were no longer visible before she and Sergeant Calhoun headed back to the castle on a different route.

When they arrived and she gave the 'all clear' to the other racers, they all cheered and raced out of the castle as quickly as they could, eager to return to racing. The only two that stayed behind were Lemona and Felix, who ran up to the girls once the excited crowd had vanished. "Oh Vanellope! I'm so glad you're safe!" Felix wrapped the little girl up in big hug, only to be ripped away and picked up by his wife. "So, this is the welcome I get?"

Felix smiled and his whole face reddened as he spoke to her. "Of course not. I'm glad to see you too. But I always knew you'd be safe. You're my dynamite gal."

Hearing her nickname, Calhoun softened up a bit, and the two kissed affectionately to Lemona's amazement. She couldn't believe that two such different characters could actually be in a relationship. Vanellope noticed her bewildered expression, and smiled, pretending to make a disgusted face. She had grown used to their affection, but still found it fun to bug them about it.

As the two kissed, Ralph came into the castle as well. "Well, he's locked in the sturdiest cell down there. I even used the handcuffs. He wouldn't be able to get out if he tried." Hearing his voice, Calhoun and Felix broke apart, still blushing vividly, and Ralph grinned at them. He too was used to their public displays of affection, but wasn't as eager to tease them when Calhoun was around. She would never slap Vanellope, but she was never afraid of slapping him, and he knew all too well that Calhoun's slaps hurt.

"Well, now that that is all settled, there should be nothing in the way of us baking you a cart!" Vanellope said to Lemona. But before they could turn and lead her away again, Lemona spoke up. "Wait. Before we go…Um…" Nervous, her speech faltered and she glitched once before finally working up the courage to ask, "Who's Turbo?"

"Only the most foul video game character in the entire arcade!" burst out Vanellope, throwing her arms out to symbolize the universe. Vanellope had sounded furious when she'd spoken, but as she opened her mouth again, she paused, and Ralph put a comforting hand on her shoulder as she took a deep, shuddering breath and glitched violently. Lemona watched tears begin streaming down her face. She wished she didn't have to worry about losing control of herself so she could do what Ralph was doing. But he seemed to be doing a good job at making Vanellope feel better, so she just waited patiently for Vanellope to continue.

"Look, I don't really want to talk about all the horrible things he's done to us," Vanellope finally managed to blurt out when her blue pixels were back in place, wiping her tears away with the sleeve of her green sweater. "Let's just say that he deserves to be in the fungeon and leave it at that. Okay?"

Lemona nodded, and by doing so, she seemed to make Vanellope cheer up. "Okay. Now let's bake you a cart!" Forgetting about Turbo, the four characters finally got to lead Lemona to the bakery, where they spent a whole hour baking Lemona her very own cart. When it was all finished, Lemona was shocked speechless at how it turned out. The cart itself was made from a hard and green rock candy, but the steering wheel and four wheels were made from lemon flavoured sour candies. The steering wheel was even shaped like a little lemon. The stick candy tubes for the exhaust to pour out of were yellow as well and shimmered with crystallized sugar.

Ralph, Felix, Vanellope, and Calhoun all stood and watched as Lemona walked around her cart, inspecting every inch of it silently. "Well?" Vanellope finally said. "What do you think?"

Lemona stayed silent as she continued to look over her cart. When she was done, she looked up at them with an expressionless face. Then, out of nowhere, her coding had a spasm, and she let out a shriek of delight. "Sweet lemon meringue pie!" she exclaimed, not even noticing the pain that came from the glitching. "I love it!" She was so thrilled that she ran up to Vanellope and gave her a great big hug, not even realizing what she'd done until it was too late. "Oh, sour lemonade."

Vanellope giggled and stayed where she was so that she wouldn't make Lemona move around unintentionally. "It's okay. I'm sure we've got some black liquorice around here somewhere. Ralph?"

"Right here," Ralph gave both girls a strand of the black candy, and in perfect synch, they both ate and gagged together. Once both had swallowed, they broke apart, and Lemona grinned sheepishly. "Sorry."

Vanellope grinned at her new friend. "Hey, don't sweat it. I'm just glad you like the cart." Her grin widened as she made her next suggestion. "You wanna take it out for a spin?"

"Sure!" Lemona hopped inside and Ralph pushed her outside. The group travelled until they reached a short track that just went in a circle. Gumdrops were all along the outside so that if a driver were to somehow get out of control they wouldn't fly off the track.

"I'm sure you'll get the hang of it, but this is the best place to start off when you're first learning to drive," informed Vanellope as Lemona stared at the controls in her cart. "Now the first thing you have to do is turn the Sour Key in the ignition."

Slowly and unsurely, Lemona obeyed, causing the cart to start up with a roar. "Excellent," Vanellope hollered over the noise. "Now shift the gear shift so that it's in Drive. Make sure to keep your right foot on the brake, otherwise you'll start moving."

That too went successfully. "Okay, now _slowly_ remove your foot from the brake pedal," called Vanellope. "This will allow you to start moving."

"Okay," Lemona called back. Before she did so, she took one deep breath in. "Well, here goes nothing."

It started out fine. Lemona slowly eased her foot off the pedal, and her cart slowly started creeping forward. She gripped the steering wheel with an iron grip at first, but as she continued around the track, she found herself feeling a little bit more comfortable. "Hey! Hey look at me guys! I'm doing—AHHH!"

Her confident cry turned into one of anguish as a painful glitch took over her body. Her entire body turned into blue pixels, and the steering wheel was released. At the same time, the foot that was still slightly on the brake pedal disappeared and reappeared stomping on the accelerator, causing the cart to take off down the track, completely out of control. "Oh my lands!" Felix proclaimed, covering his mouth with his gloved hands.

"Lemona!" Vanellope screamed, her happy expression turning into one of terror. "Ralph, stop her!"

But there was no need for that. Seeing as the track was a circle, going in a straight line caused Lemona to run into one of the sides. The collision forced her bubble gum bubble airbag to expand. By the time her friends got to her, the glitching had stopped, but it was clear the spasm had been quite painful. Lemona was breathing heavily and had wrapped her arms around her stomach. Luckily, she had been strong enough to turn off her cart, so it was no longer running. The gum drops had caused no damage to her cart, as the candy it was made of was quite strong. There weren't even any dents.

"Lemona, are you okay?" Vanellope asked, feeling concern for her new friend. Her hazel eyes were wide with the emotion and she prepared for a bad reply.

Instead, Lemona coughed and met her gaze. "I've been better. But that was probably pretty good for my first try, right?"

"Absolutely kiddo," Ralph reassured her, trying to sound happy while getting over the heart attack he'd almost had. "Do you want to try again? Or should we wait until you're feeling better?"

"No way!" Lemona instantly straightened up and ran a hand through her long hair, which she had put into a French braid while waiting for Ralph, Vanellope, and Calhoun to return from dealing with Turbo. "There's no way I'm gonna stop! I want to do this. I'll be fine. Let's try this again."

So she did, turning the key and starting to move again. This time she got a quarter of the way around the circle before she glitched and crashed. This was how it went for about twenty minutes. Start. Drive for a bit. Glitch. Crash. By the end of the twenty minutes, Lemona could hardly see, the pain was so bad.

"That's enough," Ralph finally said, snatching Lemona out of her cart and heading back to the castle, the others pushing the cart behind them. Lemona was so weak that any movements she copied from Ralph were so feeble that it was almost like she wasn't even doing them.

"This is ridiculous," Ralph said to the others when they were back in the castle. Lemona had fallen asleep on a cotton candy couch after eating a piece of black liquorice, so she couldn't hear their conversation. "I've never seen anybody from this game have so much difficulty with racing. One of us should check out her code. That must be what's causing the problem. Any volunteers?"

"I'll do it Fart-Feathers," Vanellope stood up and volunteered. "She's my subject. And anyways, you guys don't know my game's coding as well as I do. You'd get lost easier."

So they all approached the entrance that would lead to Sugar Rush's coding. Vanellope tied a long strand of pink liquorice around her waist and gave the other end to Ralph. In her other hand she held a walkie-talkie that had been given to her by Calhoun. "I'll call you guys when I need to come back," informed the brave little girl as she took a deep breath, then plunged into her game's coding.

Minutes passed by agonizingly slow. For a while it was like nothing was ever going to happen. Then, just as Felix was about to call out to Vanellope with the other walkie-talkie, her voice came on. "You guys? I found Lemona's coding. She was right. It really is fragile. It's like a bunch of candy necklace strings." There was a break in the connection, and everybody felt like she was holding something back. "Vanellope, is there anything that would explain why it's so hard for her to race?" Felix asked,

There was another silence. Then Vanellope continued talking again. "Hey guys? You remember how when Turbo ruled the game I couldn't race?"

"Yeah," Ralph answered, although he had no idea what the subject had to do with what they were talking about. "What's your point?"

"Well…" Another pause. "Lemona can't race either."

"What are you talking about soldier?" Calhoun butted in, asking the question that everybody was thinking.

"I mean Lemona can't race. But I mean it literally. I've been searching and searching, and I can't find anything about being a racer! It's literally not in Lemona's code to be a racer!"

"What?"

Calhoun, Felix, and Ralph all whirled around to see who had cried out. It was Lemona, who had woken up from her sleep and had been wandering the castle looking for them. It appeared as though she had come at the absolutely worst time. Tears began streaming once more down her cheeks and dripping onto her black cloak. "Wait…So if I can't race…What can I do?"

Vanellope's answer was not what any of them wanted to hear. "I have no idea."

That last bit of news was the final straw for Lemona, who finally burst out sobbing. "So I really do have no purpose," she sobbed, and then turned around, and ran out of sight. Felix started after her, but Calhoun held him back, saying, "Give her some time Fix-It. She needs to process all of this. That will be a better fixing agent then a hit from your hammer right now."

So when Vanellope returned from inside the code, the four friends returned to her main office and just sat there for a bit, trying to process the news themselves.

Well, what do you think? Like I said above, I'd love to hear what it is that you guys like about this story. Please read and review!


	4. Chapter 4

I know I've said this, but thank you guys so much for your incredible reviews. I love hearing what you like about my story and about Lemona. Is there anything you guys think should be fixed so that my story can be even better? Your input is very much appreciated, but remember to keep it kind.

I don't own Wreck-It-Ralph, just Lemona Lime. Now here is Chapter Four!

Chapter 4:

How had a day that had been so wonderful gone from wonderful to horrible in under a minute? Lemona had a hard time trying to comprehend it as she walked around the castle, looking for a quiet place where she could be along to cry. No effort was made to wipe the bitter tears from her eyes. If anything, they had a good excuse to be there. "Unlike me," Lemona thought to herself, bringing on another wave of anguish as she choked on a sob. The action caused her to glitch again, which only made the little girl's sour attitude worsen. It was official: she had no purpose in the game. She wasn't like Vanellope; she couldn't use her problems to help her with racing. In fact, she couldn't even race! And what good was a character in a racing game that couldn't race?

Finally Lemona couldn't hear anybody, so she stopped walking. Glancing around, she realized that she was in a part of the castle that she'd never been in before. It was much darker in this hallway then all of the other ones, and seemed to be in the basement of the castle. On either side of the hallway were what looked like jail cells with tiny windows on the back walls to let miniscule amounts of sunlight pour in. Everything was made of a dark brown treat that smelled like chocolate. Picking a small amount off of the closest wall, Lemona brought it to her lips and ate it. Its sweet taste made her realize that it was fudge. "I must be in the fungeon," she thought to herself, looking around again. She remembered Vanellope mentioning that part of the castle previously.

It may not have been the nicest place in the castle, but the darkness and loneliness there made it seem like the perfect place for Lemona to be alone with her depressed thoughts. So she entered one of the empty cells, sat down on the bench with her legs up so that her knees touched her chest, pulled the black hood of her cloak over her head, and finally rested her chin on her knees. Once she was in that position, she closed her eyes, allowing more tears to flow out from underneath her eyelids.

"Yoo hoo! Hello there!"

Hearing the cheerful voice in the one place she'd assumed she'd be alone, Lemona opened up her eyes and looked around in confusion, not seeing anyone the voice could have come from. Just when she was about to assume she'd been hearing things, the voice came back. "I'm over here, silly!"

Standing up and exiting the cell, Lemona made her way to the other side of the hall, where it sounded like the voice had come from. Poking through the bars, she was shocked to discover that in what she had thought be an empty cell, there was a little man wearing a dark vest, poofy golden striped pants, and a red bow-tie. Perked on the side of his head was a little golden crown. Handcuffs surprisingly not made out of candy were around both of his wrists.

Suddenly Lemona remembered why Vanellope had mentioned the fungeon in the first place. "Turbo!"

"Oh, so you've heard of me," the little man smiled with the hopes of looking charming. But the yellow shade of his teeth made him look the opposite, so Lemona stepped back and folded her arms in front of her as she replied. "That's not a good thing."

"Touché," Turbo continued to smile as he walked as close to the doorway as he could without being pulled back by the handcuffs. "Still, I am curious as to why such a sweet-looking girl such as yourself is crying so hard."

Lemona's attitude burst out of her before she even had time to think about it. Her lime green eyes narrowed and, "It's none of your business!" flew out of her mouth in a vicious snap as she turned her back to the strange little man. Before she even had time to move away from him, she glitched and froze in place. Feeling absolutely mad with rage now, she let out a frustrated, "Agh!" as she impatiently waited for her body to return to normal. When it had, she still felt angry, but not strong enough to keep her angry attitude. When she spoke again, this time her voice was in a much softer, dejected tone. "Besides, Vanellope, Ralph, Felix, and Calhoun don't trust you. So I don't think I'm supposed to trust you either."

Hearing this, Turbo's sweet smile turned into a taunting smirk. "Not supposed to? You make it sound like those four are your parents!"

"Well, they did take me in," admitted Lemona, turning around once again. "They may not be my parents, but I most certainly shouldn't ignore the things that they say."

"But they didn't _tell_ you not to trust me, did they?" Turbo continued, his eyes fixed intently on Lemona. As she stared back, she couldn't help noticing that his eyes changed color from chocolate brown to a yellow that reminded her of lemons. The change was very quick, and almost unnoticeable, but Lemona's favourite colour was yellow, so it was very hard for her to not notice things that were that colour.

"No," admitted Lemona, narrowing her eyes again. "But if you were trustworthy, then why would they lock you up in here? You're not making a very convincing case for yourself."

Hearing this, Turbo scoffed and gave Lemona what appeared to be a gaze of pity. "You make a good point. But the truth is that they want to keep me in here because I can help you. And none of them want that."

"Oh really?" What Turbo had just said sounded like a big pile of rotting lemons to Lemona, and she wanted to make sure that he knew so. "And how, pray tell, can you help me? You don't even know me."

"That's not true," Turbo told her, his voice suddenly becoming much softer. "You see, while you were living in the Black Liquorice Forest, I was living there too. I saw you on numerous occasions. So I know all about your glitching and what happens if I do this."

Out of nowhere, his hand stretched out, easily fitting through the bars of the cell door. Immediately, Lemona knew what he was trying to do and backed out of his reach, barring her teeth with fury. "Don't you _DARE_."

Seeing that she wasn't going to allow him to try anything, Turbo withdrew his hand and held both up. "Easy, easy," he said to her, hoping to reassure her that she was safe. "I'm just trying to make a point. I know more about you then you think. And I know that those issues probably make it very difficult to race. Am I right?"

How did he know that? Lemona stared at him with eyes that were slowly returning to their normal size and then slightly expanding. She suddenly felt very exposed, and started doing up her cloak again. She hated the fact that he thought he knew so much about her, and the thing that made it worse was that all his assumptions were true. But she didn't want Turbo to know that. So she swallowed the lump in her throat and choked out, "So why does that make you think that you can help me?"

It was almost as though Turbo had been waiting for her to ask that very question. His grin widened, and rubbed his hands together eagerly. "Because, my sweet little lemon pop, I too am a glitch." To prove his point, he forced his pixels to alter until standing before Lemona was a man wearing a white and red racing outfit complete with a helmet. His skin was grey and clammy, and his eyes were the lemon yellow that she'd noticed earlier. This form made her much more uncomfortable; there was something about his eyes that gave her chocolate truffle bumps. Turbo didn't seem to notice, but he didn't stay in his other form long. Once he was clear he'd made his point, he returned to his goofy looking form and continued speaking. "I can help you control your glitching."

"You know, Vanellope could too, and she'd be more trustworthy than you," Lemona's chocolate truffle bumps slowly disappeared, but she remained wary of the little man, who seemed to be full of surprises.

When he heard Lemona say that Vanellope could help her, his sympathetic gaze returned. He hesitated, and then seemed to decide it would be best if he spoke. "Yes, I'm sure that with her being a glitch she could help you too. But the sad truth is that she doesn't want to help you."

The ridiculous notion was cruel and unkind at the same time. "Why wouldn't she want to help me?" demanded Lemona, clenching her fists by her sides. "She's been helpful to me so far, why wouldn't she want me to learn how to control my glitching? She's my _friend!_"

Turbo's gaze would not go away no matter how long Lemona stared at him. The shackles that bound him to the cell rustled and clanked as his arms moved, only adding to the atmosphere of the fungeon. Lemona was beginning to think she didn't want to stay down there anymore.

"Look, kid," Turbo finally began, "I know that you think Vanellope is your friend. But if you somehow manage to control those little glitches of yours and start racing, all that will change. Right now, she's the best racer in the whole game, and it's all because she's a glitch too. The only people who can beat her at her own game are other glitches. She doesn't want that. The idea of losing is so disgusting to her that that's why she locked me up in here. As for you, I think it's safe to say that…she's damaged your code so you can't race."

The mere suggestion made Lemona's heart stop and her body glitch. When she was free to move, she could barely form the words that came out of her mouth. "What? No. For all the time we've known each other we've been together, except for when she left to catch you. How could she?"

"It didn't necessarily have to be her that did it," Turbo suggested, the sympathetic gaze in his eyes making her feel horrible. "None of the other racers like other glitches either. They were scared out of their wits when they saw me transforming. So they all would have been hiding in the castle when Vanellope went out to find me, right? It wouldn't have been hard for her to pass one of them a message without being noticed in the chaos. Taking the time to reach the game's code room and damaging your code would be even easier. Just think about it…"

Lemona didn't want to think about it, but she couldn't stop herself from doing as Turbo suggested. All that he was saying did seem like things that could happen. But Vanellope just didn't seem like the sort of little girl who would do horrible things like that just to keep others from winning races. From what Lemona had gathered from spending the day with her, she was a dedicated president who would take action if her people were in danger or needed help. She was fun-loving, silly, and sweeter than a glass of pink lemonade.

Lemona didn't want to agree with Turbo, but didn't know what to say to argue with him. Finally she went back to what she had first said, knowing that it was a feeble attempt. "But…she said not to trust you. She said you were the foulest person in the entire game and that you'd done horrible things. That was why you deserved to be down here."

"She may have said those things," Turbo said, stretching his arms out so that he could grab the bars of the cell door and press his face up against them. "But did she actually say what it was that I had done?"

Now Turbo had Lemona convinced. "Oh sour lemonade," she sighed, eyes falling down to the ground. "I can't believe she would do this to me. I thought…I thought we were friends. I should have known she wouldn't like me the minute that gun was pointed in my direction."

"Now, now, don't feel bad," Turbo responded. He was watching Lemona intently, and now speaking in a softer, thoughtful tone. "That little cinnamon heart-breaker is sneaky. She knows how to get people to trust her. But we can get her back."

That didn't sound like a good idea. But Lemona was still in an awful mood that was getting worse by the second, and anything that would make her feel better was something to be considered, even revenge. "What do you mean?"

"Well," Turbo began, smirking again. "What if you started coming down here on a regular basis? I could teach you how to control your glitching. Then, when you've got it fully under control, you could race against Vanellope and beat her! I can just see the look on her face!"

Lemona's face paled, and she started stuttering. "Um…Well..." Just as she was about to reject his offer the stuttering turned into full out glitching. The pain burned throughout her entire body. That final glitch made her realize what she was about to reject. "That's it," she thought to herself. "I'm tired of this happening to me all the time. Well no more. NO MORE." When she looked at Turbo again, her eyes were narrowed, but this time not with anger. The look in her eyes was determination. "Alright, I'll do it."

"Excellent!" Turbo rubbed his hands together excitedly and opened his mouth again, but just as he did, Vanellope's voice echoed from somewhere above them. "Lemona! Where are you?"

"Oh no!" gasped Turbo, shooing Lemona away. "They mustn't know that you've been here talking to me! Come back tonight when you're sure everybody is asleep. I'll give you your first lesson then."

"Okay," Lemona said, turning around and starting to run away. But before she reached the end of the hall, she stopped and turned to face him again. "But let's make one thing clear: I'm not doing _anything _to hurt Vanellope or the others. You understand? We're just going to teach her a lesson about messing with my code."

"Of course, of course," Turbo brushed off her comment as though it was just a simple matter that didn't need to be discussed. "Now go!"

Lemona didn't move. "I'm serious. I'm _not_ going to hurt them." Her tone was firm. She was angry at Vanellope for what she thought she'd done to her, but that didn't mean that she had to give her pain. Just a little bit of public humiliation, a taste of her own medicine.

Turbo nodded seriously to show Lemona that he understood her. "Alright kid. You won't have to do anything that will hurt Vanellope and her friends."

Satisfied with his answer, Lemona turned and dashed down the hallway towards the staircase that would lead her out of the fungeon. As soon as he couldn't see or hear her anymore, Turbo's face broke out into a sinister, demented grin that showed off his sharp, pointed teeth. Rubbing his hands together, he finished his sentence:

"Willingly, of course."

Read and review! Thanks a lot guys! Until next time!


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello everybody! Here's Chapter 5! Before you start reading it though, I have another question. Last chapter, I received a review that said that Lemona is quite a naive character. Do you guys think that'll be a problem that I should fix? Or do you like her the way she is? Remember, I like getting input so that I know how to make the stories enjoyable for you guys, so please, be honest with me. (But kind as well.)**

**I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and remember to read and review, especially the people who read my story and haven't reviewed yet! I accept feedback from everyone!**

Chapter 5

Once out of the fungeon it was easy for Lemona to locate the others. They'd been wandering down one of the castle's many hallways, calling her name urgently. If she hadn't known better, she would have sworn they were actually concerned about her. "Lemona! Lemona, where are you?"

"I'm right here guys," Lemona called, trying to look and sound as cheerful as she could. She started to pull the hood of her cloak off of her head, but then paused, deciding against it. Instead, she felt brave enough to reach down and take the entire cloak off, revealing her outfit underneath. She donned a dress with a bright yellow bubble skirt and a white top with a square neckline. Only a little bit of the white top could actually be seen, as overtop, she wore a green shirt with a v-shaped neckline and short, puffy sleeves. Underneath her skirt, she donned yellow leggings to keep her legs warm. Around her neck she wore a long golden necklace with a lime pendant. The only part of her outfit that didn't match the lemon and lime theme was her black flats. There were no ravens to worry about, and she knew that she had to act as though she trusted Vanellope and the others enough to be around them without her protection. She knew that she shouldn't have cared what the others thought of her attire, but without the literal weight of her cloak on her shoulders along with the rest of her body, Lemona felt insecure. Nobody had ever seen what she wore underneath before. In fact, she'd almost forgotten what the clothes underneath had looked like.

"Oh, there you are," Vanellope and the others ran up to her with smiles emerging on their faces. "Are you alright Miss Lemona?" Felix asked first, before anybody else could speak. "We were ever so concerned about you." He was standing beside Calhoun with their fingers intertwined, and he wore a look of worry on his face. "Did you hurt yourself at all while you were running around by yourself?"

Lemona forced a smile on her face as she looked at them all. "No Felix, I'm fine. I'm sorry that I ran off. I just needed a little bit of time to myself."

Everybody nodded in understanding, though Lemona was sure that none of them had any idea what she had gone through. Ralph started to move his arm so that he could clap her on the shoulder, but then stopped, remembering what would happen if he did. "That's understandable kid," he said, giving her a kind smile instead. "You heard some pretty bad news back there. We're really sorry."

Being reminded of the fact that she wasn't capable of racing made Lemona's happy act falter, and she looked up at them, the sadness in her eyes betraying her true feelings. "Isn't there anything you can do to my code to fix it? Or maybe you could just add racing to it?" Biting her lip gently, she kept her gaze fixed on Vanellope to see if the little girl would react to the mentioning of her code. She expected Vanellope to either look smug or ashamed by what she'd done, but there was only sadness in her so-called friend's face. "Man, she's one good actor," Lemona thought, biting her lip harder so that it wouldn't curl in anger. She was so focused on Vanellope that she almost didn't hear Calhoun speaking to her.

"Negatory. Fix-It's hammer works on everything but codes. As for adding stuff to it, we've been informed that your coding is indeed quite fragile. The slightest break could bring about utter disaster to your system." Pulling out the walkie-talkie that Vanellope had taken with her into the game's coding, Calhoun turned a couple of dials and pressed some buttons until a fancy screen appeared. Apparently the walkie-talkie also acted as a camera. Finding the picture she was looking for, Calhoun turned it towards Lemona so she could get a glance. It was a picture of her code, which consisted of a number of strings with little coloured boxes attached in various locations. The strings were all very thin and lifeless compared to the other strings from the game that surrounded them. Some of the string sections had even turned to blue pixels at the point the photo had been taken, telling Lemona that it had been taken during one of her glitches.

"I've never seen a code in worse shape," admitted Calhoun, putting the walkie-talkie away again. "Even the shrimp's wasn't as bad as this before it was restored. It reminds me of a batch of Cybug intestines."

"Thanks for that…wonderful…image, General Bossy-Pants," Vanellope winced. The little girl's whole world revolved around candy and racing; clearly she didn't like the way Calhoun spoke, even though everything Calhoun said and did came from years of being in a violent shooting game. That was what had given her the personality that she wasn't afraid to show.

Quickly forgetting about the disturbing comparison, Vanellope mentioned what everybody else had noticed. "Hey, you took the cloak off! That's great! I love your outfit."

"It's a doozy of an outfit alright," piped in Felix, receiving confused glances from all of the other characters. His face reddened instantly. "What? It's an expression! True, it's an older one, but it still serves its purpose!"

Ralph chuckled to himself and snatched Felix's blue baseball cap off of his head so that with his other hand he could ruffle up his milk chocolate hair. "As old as his saying may be, he's got a point Lemona. You really do look good without that cloak."

As angry as she was with the other characters, Lemona felt her cheeks involuntarily warm up to the temperature of the hot cocoa she had drank earlier. She hadn't received very many compliments during her time inside of Sugar Rush. "Th-Th-Thanks Ralph," she eventually stuttered. Her blue pixels revealed themselves for a brief moment, flashing like a million bright blue lights. Once it was all over, she felt the familiar sharp pains in her stomach, and the intensity of them made her face pale, removing the blush she'd only just acquired. "Um…You don't think it'd be too much trouble if I grabbed something small to eat? Sometimes food helps ease my glitching pains."

"That won't be necessary," Vanellope smiled coyly, looking as though she wanted to burst with excitement. "While we were looking for you, I was thinking of ways to make you feel better after everything that happened today. And I decided that I'm going to host a banquet for you!"

"A…A…A banquet?" repeated Lemona, blinking in disbelief. The news was unexpected.

The little rogue nodded in confirmation, her entire face glowing. "Yep! I figured it'd be a good way for you to meet the other players. Who knows! Maybe they'll have some ideas about what your purpose in Sugar Rush is."

Lemona was speechless with shock. The overwhelming emotion caused her to glitch a couple more times, increasing the pain in her stomach as she froze up and relaxed repeatedly. If it kept up for much longer, she felt like she was going to be sick. Noticing this, Vanellope beckoned for her to follow. "Come on. Sour Bill should have most of the food prepared by now. It's not officially supposed to start for a half hour, but you look like you need to sit down. Most of the racers will probably be here already anyway. They usually get pretty excited when I host one of these things."

Still unable to speak, Lemona obeyed, walking silently behind the others until they arrived in the main hall, where she discovered Sour Bill had done much more than she'd expected, especially given the small amount of time he'd been given. Bubble gum balloons hung from the ceiling along with some steamers, and sprinkles were everywhere. A long table made of smores had been placed in the middle of the main hall and was absolutely covered with various plates of sweets. Most of the candy chairs that surrounded the feast were occupied by chatting, laughing children all in candy-themed outfits. They were all so focused on their conversations that none of them noticed Lemona or the others when they entered.

Vanellope ran to the head of the table, where she cleared her throat loudly. At the sound all conversations came to a halt. All eyes turned toward the President, who smiled in greeting. "Good evening boys and girls," she called, her voice carrying throughout the entire hall. "As your president, I'd like to thank you personally for coming to this banquet, which I am hosting to celebrate the arrival of our newest character."

The instant the children heard the words, 'new racer,' they began talking amongst themselves again, all of them sounding confused. It was clear that they had no idea what Vanellope was talking about, and she had to whistle to get their attention again.

"That's right," she continued once she had the floor again. "We have a new character in Sugar Rush. She's only been here for a month, and I think it's time we all make her feel welcome." When she was finished, she looked towards the doorway, where Lemona was still standing, frozen. "Lemona, do you want to come up here?"

Lemona's face paled and her eyes widened as everybody else in the room turned their focus from Vanellope towards her. With all of those pairs of eyes staring at her, she felt like she was going to pass out. A throbbing in her head began, making her feel like she was forgetting something, but she couldn't figure out what it was. It must have been important, because as she wracked her brain trying to remember, the feeling wouldn't go away. Her aching stomach clenched into a tight knot, and she eventually swallowed and made her way around the table. She kept her focus straight ahead of her, trying to ignore the hammering in her head and her other nervous symptoms. It didn't help that she could still feel everybody else's eyes on her as she moved. Suddenly she wished she was wearing her cloak again. She knew that she had to calm down, so she loosened her tight grip on the black cloak in hopes of the act helping.

When she finally reached the end of the table where Vanellope was standing, Lemona hadn't glitched once in fear, although the terrified feelings were still very much alive. Everybody was still staring at her. Swallowing again, she started to speak. "Hello. I'm…I'm Lemona Lime."

Silence was her received response. Unsure of what to do next, Lemona reached down and grabbed a handful of lemon drops from one of the many plates in front of her. As well as her symptoms from being scared, her aches from glitching beforehand were still there, and she wanted to at least make those go away.

Just as she popped one of the candies into her mouth, one of the racers whispered to another one, "Look at her hair. It's so long! I wish I could grow mine out like that."

"I know," the girl she was talking to replied, pointing in Lemona's direction. "And check out that dress! The bottom reminds me of a cloud of cotton candy! So sweet!"

Soon all of the racers were talking about how much they liked Lemona. Eventually they all got up and surrounded her, though they weren't close enough to touch her luckily. They all asked her questions about everything from her hair and outfit to where she'd been living for the past month. At first the attention was overwhelming, but as she got more familiar with each racer, Lemona found her grip on her cloak relaxing. Soon she was eating sweets and talking with them as though she'd known them her entire life, and her aches disappeared, even the pounding in her head.

Near the end of the banquet, one of the girls asked if they could see Lemona's cart. Not seeing the harm in showing it to them, she got Ralph to help her push it into the main hall before he, Felix, and Calhoun left to return to their games. Once it was sitting in the main hall, the cart began getting admired by all.

"Wow," Crumbelina DiCaramello gasped, sitting down inside to get a feel for the vehicle. "You must fly in this cart. I'd love to see it in action."

Hearing this made Lemona remember her disastrous racing attempts and the smile fell from her face. "Well actually…"

As she started to speak, she was interrupted by Vanellope, who had been watching the racers get along the entire time. "That's actually the other reason I invited you all here," she said, standing up and out of her chair. "After we built the cart, Lemona took it out for a drive, and we found out that she has some problems."

"Problems?" A racer by the name of Taffyta eyed Vanellope suspiciously. "What do you mean 'problems'?"

Vanellope opened her mouth to explain, but at that moment, Lemona dropped her cloak on the floor. As she bent down to pick it up, Rancis Fluggerbutter bent down as well, having the same idea. As they both reached for the cloak, Lemona didn't even realize until it was too late that his fingers had glazed hers.

Immediately Lemona straightened up, and the pixelation began. The others all jumped back and watched in horror as electricity coursed through her entire body, jumping out and creating a crackling noise that hurt everybody's ears. Some of the electric current leaped from her body to Rancis' making him yelp in pain. Then it stopped just as quickly as it had happened. The last thing Lemona's body did before anybody could react was glitch and twitch once more. Then it remained frozen, awaiting movement from its controller, Rancis.

"What happened?" Rancis finally asked, wincing from the pain of being shocked. He started to move closer to Lemona, who then started walking towards him, until Vanellope put her arm between the two.

"Stop moving Rancis!" she exclaimed, her eyes darting around the banquet table in the search of some black liquorice. She knew she had asked Sour Bill to lay out a plate of it just in case something like this happened, but where was it? "It's one of Lemona's problems. When people touch her, they can gain control her."

"Let me get this straight," Taffyta stepped forward, her eyebrows arching. "You're telling us that Lemona is a _glitch_?"

Vanellope almost only nodded in response, but then decided against it. "Like I was saying, that's why I invited you here. Her problems make it impossible for her to race, so I was hoping you'd have some ideas as to what her purpose in this game could be."

There was more silence as the racers all looked at each other. It seemed as though they were communicating with each other telepathically. Even Rancis turned his head, forcing Lemona to do the same. So she saw when Taffyta started snickering, which turned into full-fledged laughter very quickly. As soon as she started laughing, everybody else joined in.

"I can't believe it," Taffyta managed to choke out between her howls. "This is absolutely rich! She's a glitch, AND she can't race!" As she laughed, she grabbed onto Rancis and started moving him around, forcing Lemona to move as well. "Maybe she's meant to be a statue on the top of a chocolate fondue fountain!"

"Or a helmet rack!" Candlehead giggled, her tone light and airy as she tapped the helmet on the top of her head.

The humiliating suggestions continued to pour in as Vanellope kept desperately looking for the plate of black liquorice, wishing that her friends were still here to help her control the madness. Lemona's body was being thrown in various directions as the racers pushed Rancis around, and she like she was going to be sick again, but this time it wasn't because of the glitching. It was due to the humiliation. If she could have moved, her eyes would have been overflowing with tears again. Lemona didn't think she'd ever cried so much in a single day.

Finally Vanellope found the plate of black liquorice. "That's enough!" she shouted, shoving a piece in Rancis' mouth and in Lemona's. Rancis gagged and spat out most of the nasty candy, but some of it must have made it down his throat, because soon Lemona felt herself jerking involuntarily and soon afterward, she found she was in control again. Once she was in control, the only thing she wanted to do was slump to the ground, which is exactly what she did.

Meanwhile, Vanellope was still yelling at the other racers. "I can't believe you guys would do something like this! Don't make me rethink that execution sentence!"

Hearing the threat made the other racers run away screaming and soon the main hall was almost empty. Vanellope knelt down to speak to Lemona. "I'm so sorry about that," she whispered. "They treated me like that before they remembered that I was their princess. I guess old habits die hard."

Hearing that made Lemona suddenly remember what had been making her head pound previously. It had been something Turbo had said to her while in the fungeon. _"None of the other racers like other glitches either."_

Suddenly everything made sense. "So, that's why Vanellope organized this banquet." The idea was absolutely atrocious and cruel, but perfectly reasonable given what Lemona believed about Vanellope. "She knew the other racers wouldn't accept me, so she invited them over so they could laugh at me. She wanted to make a fool out of me. Well I'll show her." Looking up at Vanellope, Lemona managed to whisper, "Vanellope, have any of the other racers ever beat you in a race?"

Vanellope looked puzzled at the change of subject, but seemed to be happier talking about racing then the behaviour of the other racers. "Nope! My glitching power allows me to teleport. They've never been able to catch up to me."

At that moment, Lemona had never felt so sure about anything in her life. She wanted to learn how to control her glitching so that she could be the one to beat Vanellope. She would shed no more tears. Enough was enough.

Slowly and carefully, she stood up, holding in her feelings as best she could. It resulted in her mouth forming a tense straight line. Seeing the way she looked, Vanellope assumed Lemona wanted a place to be alone and maybe get some sleep. So she led her to an empty bedroom in the castle, where she left her alone. There Lemona waited until the round peppermint clock with pie sliced shaped hands struck twelve. Then she got up and slipped out of her room, quiet as a snake, on her way to the fungeon.

Dun, dun, dun! Please read and review! This is a busy time in my life, so the next chapter probably won't be up for a little while, but I hope you enjoy what you've read so far. Sayonara!


	6. Chapter 6

Thanks to all the reviewers once again! I'm so excited to see that more people are reading and reviewing for my story! And thanks for lettting me know what you guys think of Lemona. I hope this next chapter satisfies.

I don't own Wreck It Ralph and any of the characters from it. I only own Lemona Lime, my OC.

Chapter 6:

Finding the fungeon in the dark was much harder than it had been that afternoon. Still quite unfamiliar with all the hallways and rooms in Vanellope's castle, Lemona found herself creeping around for a long while, wishing she had thought to grab a flashlight or some other source of light. Fortunately, whenever she glitched, her pixels glowed a dark blue, but that didn't really help her, as she couldn't move when she glitched, and by the time it stopped, the light was gone. Vanellope kept some lights on in the hallways, which allowed Lemona to wander around without crashing into things, but the limited light caused every door to look the same. Finally Lemona found the door that would lead her down to the fungeon, and she eased her way down the stairs, praying that none of the steps would squeak or creak. They seemed to be in good condition, which seemed odd, considering what area of the castle she was entering, but Lemona didn't think too much about it as she took the last step, ending up in the fungeon's hallway.

It was easier to find Turbo's cell then it had been to find the fungeon, and when Lemona arrived in front of it, she saw the little man fast asleep on the stale graham cracker bench. Grabbing onto the jail cell bars, Lemona pressed her face against them and hissed, "Pst! Hey, Turbo! Turbo!"

Her voice wasn't loud enough to carry to Turbo, but Lemona didn't want to be any louder, just to make sure nobody upstairs heard her. She had to find another way to wake him up. She looked around, trying to think up an idea when her gaze landed on the floor. Bending down, she scooped a handful of fudge, and then stood up again. Taking a smaller piece off of her handful, she rolled it into a ball before aiming and flicking it through the bars towards the sleeping figure. It was a perfect shot, tapping his helmet before rebounding and landing on the floor with a light thud and sticking. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to wake up Turbo, who merely shuffled on the bench to make himself more comfortable. Not ready to give up, Lemona made a bigger ball and repeated her action, using a little more force this time. It again hit his helmet and did no good. Getting a little frustrated, Lemona took the remaining fudge in her hand, squeezed it into an even bigger ball, and then chucked it like a baseball through the bars. This one had the most force out of the three, and instead of hitting Turbo's helmet, it went slightly off course and smacked him in the cheek. Startled awake, Turbo jolted up, then lost his balance and tumbled off of the bench to the ground below. In a flash he was on his feet, his face growing cherry-red. Startled by the expression on his face, Lemona took a couple of steps back.

"Why, you little—" Turbo began to snarl before realizing who it was that was in front of him, farther away then she'd started out with a pale face. Instantly he relaxed and gave Lemona a smile. "Oh, Lemona, it's you. I thought it was…someone else."

Forcing a smile back, Lemona remained where she was, ensuring that Turbo couldn't enter her personal space. "Yeah…Look, I'm sorry, but can we just get started with the training?"

Turbo chuckled as he walked from one end of the cell to the other. Though he was in his form with the crown, his eyes were still changing from one color to another, and in the darkness of the fungeon, they glowed almost hypnotically. The eeriness made Lemona remember his second form, and she found herself keeping a wary eye on him, unable to tear her gaze away. She felt as though she was being pulled in towards him, though she was still aware enough to ensure that she kept her feet firmly planted where she stood.

"My, my, aren't we eager tonight?" teased Turbo, his smile only adding to the charm he was pouring out.

Not wanting to go into details, Lemona crossed her arms over her chest, replying with an air of indifference. "Look, let's just say that yesterday was not one of my better days."

"Hoo, hoo!" Hearing the sound of chuckles made fierce glitches course through Lemona's body as she fought to hold in her anger. Had Turbo not heard or misunderstood her? Or was he _trying _to get on her bad side? If the second option was the case, then it was certainly working. Lemona could feel the bitter emotion travelling through her body like her blood.

"And just _what,_ pray tell, is so funny?" she finally spat out, the words flying out of her mouth like poison. For an instant she wished that she was in the cell with the eccentric cackling man so that she could wipe his cavity-filled smile right off of his face.

Seeing the scowl on her face, Turbo's laughter ceased, and he cleared his throat before speaking to her. "Oh, I'm terribly sorry, my precious little key lime. You must understand, I'm not laughing at you! I'm laughing because you've come at just the right time! All those bitter feelings that are raging inside of your body as we speak are just what you need to control your glitching!"

The sentence sounded like one that should have been easy to understand, but for Lemona it was exactly the opposite. "What are you talking about?" she demanded, beginning to suspect that Turbo was more than a little crazy. "Is your brain the size of a jelly bean? When I get angry my glitching gets _harder _to control. That's why it happens more often."

"No, no, no," Turbo's crooked smirk reached all the way up to his glowing eyes. "Your glitching occurs more often and seems uncontrollable because you haven't been harnessing your anger. That's the first step to getting the glitching under control."

Lemona's expression leaped from doubtful to shocked. "I…I can do that?" Emotions had never been something she'd thought one could control, only feel. But apparently her question was ridiculous because no sooner had she asked than Turbo began howling with laughter again. It was so loud as it echoed around the fungeon that Lemona was sure that one of the donut police officers or Vanellope herself was going to come down and discover what was going on.

Luckily, Turbo managed to pull himself together, though the smirk on his face didn't leave. "My dear, your entire character is _built_ upon being a sourpuss. Just think about your name: Lemona Lime. There's absolutely nothing sweet or sugar-coated about it. Of course it's possible for you to harness that sourness. What else could you do with it?"

As Lemona continued to process everything she was being told, Turbo continued to talk. "Now, to harness all that anger, you need to think about something that makes you _feel_ angry. So I want you to close your eyes, and think about something from yesterday. It doesn't matter what it is, as long as it makes you very, very angry. The stronger the emotion is, the easier it will be to gain control of your glitching."

Obeying, Lemona let her eyelids fall over her green orbs. "Okay, something from yesterday," she thought, going through all of the terrible things that had happened. "Getting a gun pointed in my face…no, that was more terrifying than maddening. Finding out I couldn't race…upsetting, but still not good enough. The humiliation the other racers put me through…perfect."

Concentrating on the last event on the day, Lemona could still hear the taunts and laughter that had tormented her.

"_She's a glitch, AND she can't race!"_

"_Maybe she's meant to be a statue on top of a chocolate fondue fountain!"_

"_Or a helmet rack!"_

Listening to them all over again, Lemona felt her nails beginning to dig into the skin of her palms as her hands clenched into fists, and her entire body started to quiver. A glitch racked through her body, but she managed to stay in the position she was in and not scream out in agony. She was too busy listening to the hateful words in her head that were repeating themselves over and over again. She was so drawn into her memories that she almost didn't hear Turbo speak again. "Excellent!" he crowed, and if Lemona had opened her eyes, she would have seen the smile on his face that meant everything was working according to plan. "I see you have your memory?"

Though the voices in her head were still on repeat, Lemona was conscious enough to nod as a reply. "What's next?" she asked through gritted teeth.

"Can you feel the anger boiling up inside of you?" demanded Turbo, watching intently. Once again, Lemona nodded in response, and Turbo asked one more question. "Is it taking over your entire body?"

Lemona nodded again, but as she did, another glitch rippled through her body, and this one she felt. She tried to keep her body stiff and tight, but she couldn't help letting out a gasp, and doing so caused her concentration to falter.

"Easy, easy! Careful! Get that memory back!" she heard Turbo's voice cry out, and obediently, as soon as the glitch had passed, she went back to thinking about the disastrous banquet. Once she felt the powerful rage again, it was a little bit stronger then it had started out. Her eyes were still closed, but instead of black nothingness, Lemona started seeing red in front of her, as though her eyes had been covered with icing. Getting tired of just standing there, she managed to grunt out, "What…What's next?"

Turbo's voice called out to her in the redness. "Now, just reach out your hands."

The suggestion was startling, and Lemona's eyes flickered open for a brief moment. "What? Why?"

"I know that this is scary for you Lemona, but you're going to have to trust me." To Lemona, it sounded as though Turbo was far away as he spoke to her, his voice sounding like a yell over the sound of the racers. She knew exactly what he wanted her to do, but the idea of her and Turbo touching was frightening. Who knew what would happen, especially given the state she was in. However, she could tell that listening to Turbo was the only way she was going to be able to learn how to control her glitches and be able to race, so keeping her eyes firmly squeezed shut, she took a deep breath in, then pushed her arms forward. She felt her hands pass through the bars, and suddenly they were enveloped by the coldest touch she'd ever felt in her lifetime.

Then the electricity started. The sound of crackling and cracking was louder then Lemona had ever heard before, and terror forced her to keep her eyes shut tight. Her vision of red was now changing from red to blue and back again very rapidly, and she could feel a glitch building up inside of her. But there was something in her system that seemed to prevent it from bursting out. It was certainly trying; Lemona could feel the glitch pounding against her skin like someone trying to knock a door down. Surprisingly, the violent hits caused her no pain. In fact, the only thing they caused her body to do was shake back and forth as though she were experiencing a seizure. Her grip on Turbo's hands increased as she struggled to stay on her feet. As she shook and the electricity inside of her moved and cracked, Lemona noticed that the pounding was getting weaker and weaker. Soon it was just a gentle throb, and the electricity's crackling had been reduced to a gentler sound. Suddenly her legs seemed to turn to gelatine, and her knees buckled, causing her to slump to the ground. Though she didn't hurt, Lemona couldn't stop her breathing from coming out shakily as she opened her eyes wide and asked Turbo the first thing that came to her mind. "What…What happened?"

"You did it my little lemon cake!" Turbo sounded ecstatic as he pulled Lemona back up onto her feet. "You were actually able to hold back a glitch! It'll get easier the more you practice, but that was a Turbo-Tastic first attempt!

Was it Lemona's imagination, or did Turbo's face seem a bit pinker then it had been when she'd first met him? Deciding it was just an after effect of seeing so much red, Lemona didn't ponder the thought. Instead, she shook her hands out of his ice-cold grip, not realizing until it was too late that she still needed something to hold onto to steady herself. Letting out a yelp, she toppled forward, grabbing the first thing she could, which happened to be the bars of Turbo's jail cell. "Whew," she thought, breathing a sigh of a relief. "It's a good thing that was there for me to grab…Wait a minute…I grabbed that?"

Letting out another squeal, Lemona pushed herself back, stumbling backwards until she tripped over her feet and toppled to the floor and onto her rear end. Every single movement made her cry out and finally she whipped her head up so that she was staring at Turbo, whose position hadn't changed since he'd pulled her up. "I…I'm moving! But…But we touched…And you never ate…How is this happening?"

"Oh, did I neglect to mention that there's a difference between when the two of us touch and when other people touch you?" Turbo smirked as Lemona carefully made her way onto her feet again; staring at each moving body part as though she had never seen it before. "Because I'm helping you control your glitches, I have the power to choose whether or not to I gain control or not when we touch. When you harness your sour feelings, it makes your body and code stronger, and I'm like a stabilizer. When we touch, our connection prevents all of your glitching powers from being unleashed. And once you've got the entire process down, it'll be a ginger snap for you to race and beat Vanellope."

The second their plan was mentioned, Lemona felt an unfamiliar feeling rising up inside of her. It was like a sweet combination of pride and anticipation. A wicked smirk crossed her face briefly at the thought of beating Vanellope, and she found herself saying, "Revenge is sweet."

"No, my dear," Turbo reached out and grabbed Lemona's hand once more. "Revenge is not sweet. It is sour. Just like you."

This time Lemona didn't find herself caring how cold his hands were. It was a magnificent feeling to be able to actually feel another human being's touch without worrying about being hurt or used. Her unfamiliar feelings melted away, and she found herself no longer thinking about them as she relished in the joy of being free, if only for a moment. She had never thought of being sour as a good thing before, though now that she could see what good it did her, what was the point of trying to be some sweet and innocent candy girl? It was like Turbo had said: her very name was sour-sounding.

"I am sour," she found herself whispering, as she continued to stare at their connection. Her smirk grew a little bit bigger. "And I'm going to use that to my advantage."

Lemona and Turbo ended up practicing controlling her glitches for another two hours. By the time Lemona was back in her room and asleep, with plans to return the next night, she had never felt so exhausted or so strong before.

Well, was it good enough? I hope it was. Please read and review!


	7. Chapter 7

Wow, this was a quick update! Thanks again for all the support and awesome reviews I've been receiving. And in response to Invisiblegirl16's last review, no, Turbo's not draining her, but he definitely is up to something. You guys will just have to read and find out!

I don't own Wreck-It-Ralph. I only own my OC Lemona Lime. (Trust me, I know you guys are tired of reading that, I'm getting tired of writing it, lol. But it must be done!) Now enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 7

The next morning, Lemona slept in. Even when she eventually woke up, she still hadn't slept off all of the exhaustion from staying up so late. But when she remembered all the marvellous things she'd managed to accomplish, it all seemed worth it. When she entered the main hall for breakfast that morning, her racing kart was still sitting there, alone and dejected. Lemona approached it and tenderly laid a hand on the lemon shaped steering wheel. "I'll be able to use you soon," she whispered, as though the kart was alive and could hear her. "I promise."

"Well, it's about time!"

The voice came from out of nowhere, and at first, Lemona thought perhaps her cart really was alive and was reprimanding her for not making her promise sooner. But she shook her head to wake herself up, realizing just how silly the idea was. Karts couldn't talk…but presidents could.

Vanellope bounded into the main hall with Ralph, Felix, and Calhoun right behind her. "We've been waiting for HOURS for you to wake up!" Vanellope declared in a clearly exaggerated tone. She was eating a vanilla ice cream cone that Lemona assumed was her lunch, and held another one in her other hand, though this one was yellow. Vanellope held out the yellow cone to Lemona. "Here. You must be starving! You completely missed our breakfast! It was great! Sour Bill made a _scrumptious _blueberry pie with whipped cream on top and blueberry syrup!"

Lemona managed a smile as she took a small lick of her cone. "Sorry. I was really tired from yesterday."

Vanellope took the last bite of her lunch and then proceeded to speak with a mouthful of ice cream. "Yeah, that makes sense," she barely managed to muffle out. Swallowing quickly, she wiped her sticky hands on her brown peanut butter cup skirt as she spoke. "Well, today will be a nice, relaxing change from yesterday. The arcade's open today, so you're gonna have to stay away from the race track. The gamers have never seen you before, and I don't want them thinking you're a problem that will cause the game to need to be unplugged. They don't know you like we do yet. So today you can do whatever you want!"

Lemona's first thought was that she could disappear into the fungeon again and practice controlling her glitches with Turbo again. With the arcade open, Vanellope and the racers would be at the track all day, and Vanellope's friends would be at the track cheering her on. The time alone would be the perfect opportunity for Lemona to do it, and then she wouldn't have to stay up so late that night.

"The racers will be at the track all day," Vanellope added, confirming Lemona's thought. "But I took my name off of the roster, so that I could spend the entire day with you! I thought being by yourself all day would get kind of boring. And as the president of Sugar Rush, I simply won't tolerate boredom!"

Darn it. That changed things. Lemona's smile vanished, and she bit her lip, hoping that the others would interpret her actions as nervousness and not disappointment. "Are you sure you wouldn't rather be racing today? After all, that's what's in your code."

Vanellope shook her head with certainty. "Nah. I can race anytime I want. Besides, you'd get lonely if I left you by yourself."

"Oh, if she only knew," Lemona griped, turning to the characters that weren't part of Sugar Rush. "So if the arcade's open, why are you guys here? Won't gamers be expecting you in your own games?"

All three of them shook their heads. "It's Monday afternoon," explained Felix, gripping his golden hammer tightly in his hand. "Nobody comes to our game on a Monday afternoon. So we're free."

"And my game's out of commission for at least a week," Sergeant Calhoun griped, rolling her eyes as though she was thinking about something incredibly stupid. "Some genius jammed the gun controller, so Mr. Litwak's supposed to be fixing it." She shrugged indifferently. "It'll put my troops behind schedule with the Cybug killing, but I guess Mr. Litwak's gotta do what he's gotta do."

"So because yesterday was such a bad day, we all figured we'd hang out with you and do whatever you want to do!" chirped Vanellope, wiggling with excitement. "I don't know what you usually did when you lived in the Black Liquorice Forest, but if there's something that you really liked to do, then we'll do it!"

Thinking back on her time in the Black Liquorice Forest, Lemona could only remember doing three things: hiding from the ravens, jumping around and acting like a crazed lunatic whenever one of them touched her, and forcing down black liquorice. None of them were really things she wanted to redo.

As she was about to suggest that they could stay in the castle and just talk until Vanellope got bored and left, Lemona thought of one other thing. "Well," she hesitated as an uncontrolled glitch froze her body, then continued speaking, "I always liked climbing the black liquorice trees."

Hearing that made Vanellope leap into the air, her hazel eyes shining intensely. "That's it!" She crowed, unleashing a white-toothed smile. "I know the perfect place for tree climbing. Follow me."

The quintet exited the castle and marched all around Sugar Rush, Lemona the very last one in the line. She had never been in any of the areas they walked through, so she couldn't stop herself from gazing around with wonder. Everything was so bright and colourful, a glorious contrast from the black world she'd lived in. Vanellope noticed her walking a little slower than the rest of them, but decided against telling her to hurry up. Lemona seemed to be enjoying the 'tour' and she certainly deserved to have a good day after all the troubles that had fallen down on her like the Mento stalactites that Vanellope had seen tumbling into the diet cola inside of the mountain that used to be her home.

Finally they arrived in the Candy Cane Forest and Vanellope stopped. "Tadah!" she declared, throwing her arms out in a grand gesture. "Welcome to the greatest place in the universe for tree climbing! Otherwise known as the Candy Cane Forest."

Lemona's mouth dropped open as she stared at the towering trees before her. None of the black liquorice trees ever grew as tall as these treats. They stood so tall that it looked like they could almost touch the Skittles rainbow that had stretched itself across the sky.

Forgetting about being sour, Lemona let out a whoop and ran to the nearest tree, gripping the trunk like a maniac and beginning her mad ascent. "Just don't grab the double striped ones!" Vanellope called out to her. "Double stripes break!" She finished her warning with a taunting smirk in Ralph's direction. "Isn't that right, Mr. Sweaty Palms?"

Ralph pretended to shoot a glare at Vanellope and bent down to pick her up in his gigantic gorilla hands. But the nine-year-old was too quick for him, glitching from her spot on the ground and appearing a couple of feet above Lemona on a tree branch. "Catch me if you can, Broken Breath Mint!" she taunted, blowing a raspberry in his direction. Instantly Ralph was climbing the tree's trunk, and the sound of their laughing and teasing filled the air. Felix approached a nearby tree and turned his head upwards to see how far it reached. Allowing a gulp to escape his throat, he poked the tree as though testing to see how sturdy it was. Suddenly he was scooped up underneath Calhoun's arm like a sack of flour. "Come on Fix-It, it's time to quit being a lady and start being a man!" Ignoring Felix's cry of "Jiminy Jaminy!" she began bounding up as well, her extra height and army training allowing her to catch up to the others quickly.

Though Lemona was still angry with Vanellope, she couldn't help admitting to herself that she was enjoying herself. With each branch she grabbed, she seemed to get farther and farther away from her problems, which she'd left on the ground. Pulling herself up was a bit of a struggle, as she was unfamiliar with climbing candy canes, but she finally made it to the very top, her long hair trailing down her back and swaying in the gentle breeze. Taking a seat on the highest branch, she could see all of Sugar Rush. The sweet sight of the landscape was breath-taking, and she could hear the low rumbling and roaring of carts in the distance. Below her, Felix and Calhoun were sitting and holding hands, staring off into the distance. Felix had his head resting on his wife's arm, and the tough-as-nails army chick was making no effort to make him move. If anything, she seemed at ease. Vanellope and Ralph were together as well, and even though their interaction wasn't as peaceful, it was just as sweet. Both were laughing playfully as Vanellope glitched around Ralph, remaining on the same tree branch as him, but popping up in different spots. At one point she ended up on his shoulders, and Ralph took the opportunity to snatch her up in his hands and start tickling her. When he was finished, Vanellope gave him a great big hug, and Ralph returned it warmly. Watching the displays of affection, Lemona felt her sour attitude slowly melting away and being replaced with peace. Maybe she didn't have to be sour all the time. Maybe there wasn't anything wrong with being sweet. Sure, it was possible that Vanellope had caused the damage to her code, but she was getting her glitching under control, so it really wasn't an issue anymore. Lemona still wanted to beat Vanellope in a race, but there wouldn't be anything wrong with forgiving her and becoming friends, right? And then, once she started being able to race, she'd finally have her purpose, and the other racers would accept her!

Seeing Lemona watching and reflecting from above, Vanellope glitched up to her branch, taking a seat beside her and swinging her legs back and forth energetically. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" she said, referring to the sight of Sugar Rush before them.

Lemona nodded, and Vanellope continued speaking. "Hey listen," she started. "I really think that one day you'll be able to race like the rest of us. But…if it turns out that I'm wrong, I was thinking maybe you'd like to help me rule Sugar Rush. You know, like a second in command. That way you'd have a purpose. Because I know what it's like to feel like you aren't supposed to exist."

Lemona felt her heart lurch at the gesture, and a glitch rippled through her body, though it was just a gentle one that resulted in a light stomach ache that quickly passed. Clearing her throat, she managed to stammer out, "Jellied lemon slices, Vanellope. That's really thoughtful." After she spoke, she felt another glitch coming on, more powerful this time. Not wanting to experience it, she closed her eyes and quickly conjured up an angry memory. Because she was away from Turbo, she needed to find a different stabilizer, so she gripped the tree branch she was sitting on, tightening up her body as much as she could. Very soon afterward, she felt the thumping inside of her body, and waited patiently for it and the shaking to die down. When it was just a gentle throbbing, she opened her eyes again, and the first thing she saw was Vanellope staring at her with a wide-eyed expression. "Did…did you just hold back a glitch?"

Nodding again, Lemona removed one hand from the tree branch and used it to straighten out her skirt. "Yeah, it's something I learned how to do last night when I was in my room. I've been practicing. It's pretty cool, huh?"

Vanellope recovered quickly, getting a delighted expression on her face. "That's more than cool! It's fantastic! You'll be racing in no time Lemona! Oh, this is so exciting!"

Lemona started to laugh at Vanellope when suddenly she felt something tugging on her hair. Turning her head so she could look down, she discovered that it had gotten stuck on a sticky part of a candy cane branch below. "Oh sour lemonade," she sighed, using her free hand to try and pull her hair up and out of the mess. Unfortunately, the wet candy cane was as sticky as a pool of taffy, and pulling did nothing but hurt her head. "Come on," she groaned, yanking and yanking to no avail. Losing patience, she took her other hand off of the branch she was sitting on, and used both to tug on her hair. "Come, on, come on! I did not climb all the way up here just to get stuck like a rock in a patch of Nesquik sand! Almost got it…Aha!"

With one final yank, the hair came unattached. Unfortunately, with the amount of force she'd been using, Lemona lost her balance when it suddenly flew up, and since she was no longer holding on to her branch, she fell backwards and began toppling to the ground below. "Aaah!"

"Lemona!" Vanellope screamed, too startled to move to grab her until it was too late. "Ralph, do something!"

Noticing the situation, Ralph, Felix, and Calhoun all began rapidly leaping down to the ground behind Vanellope, who had zapped from the top branch to the ground. Vanellope had been too small to successfully catch Lemona, so by the time the others got to the ground, they saw her kneeling beside Lemona's mangled body. All of her limbs were hanging at distorted angles, and glitches were racking her body, which was unable to repair itself. The fall had not been enough to knock the child unconscious, so she could feel every agonizing pain. The green and pink ground underneath her was slowly turning red, and Lemona couldn't stop herself from gasping and screaming. "Please! Please! Help…Help me! Make it stop! Please…Make…It…Stop!"

"Easy there Lemona, everything's going to be okay," Ralph tried to comfort the agonized child while Vanellope watched the entire scene with horror-filled eyes. The rosy pink in her cheeks had vanished, and she felt like she was going to vurp.

"Fix-It, use your hammer!" snapped Calhoun. She had seen her share of injuries and blood from her own game, but nothing like this had ever happened in Sugar Rush, save for the Cybug and Turbo incident. The entire thing seemed unnatural in the sweet universe.

"Jiminy jaminy!" Felix gasped, pulling his golden hammer out from his tool belt. Holding it above Lemona's body, he tried to speak in a soothing tone, but couldn't stop his voice from shaking at the sight before him. "Now Lemona, I know this hurts, but I can fix it!" After saying his catch phrase, he immediately got to work, tapping each injury as lightly as he could to minimize the pain he caused her. Each tap produced a light dinging sound and the limbs repaired themselves, along with the rips and tears in her clothes. The last place Felix tapped was Lemona's neck, and then everyone backed up and waited for Lemona to get up.

Still shaking vigorously but no longer glitching, Lemona slowly sat up, not even thinking about wiping away the tears that stained her face. "Th…Thanks Felix," she managed to choke out, not quite over the pain she'd just experienced. Slowly she went from sitting to standing, allowing everyone to further see her. If it hadn't been for the tears and blood that stained her body, nobody would have suspected that she'd just fallen hundreds of feet. Well, except for one other thing…

"Leaping lollipops, what's that on her neck?" screeched Vanellope, pointing at Lemona. Right on the left side of her neck, bright red and highly noticeable, there was a scar.

"That's right where I tapped her with my hammer," Felix breathed, his gaze going from Lemona's neck to his golden hammer. "But I don't understand…I've repaired lots of injuries with this hammer, and it's never left scars before!"

Sergeant Calhoun approached Lemona, putting a hand under her chin and pushing her head up at an angle so she could get a better look. "Looks like your typical average hypertrophic scar," she analyzed, turning back to the others. "She probably got it because she's a glitch. Her code's broken and weak, so when she gets injured, her body's unable to fully repair itself so that it looks normal again. I'm thinking it'll get less noticeable with time, but it's never going to fully go away."

Lemona's breath caught in her throat and she found herself bringing a hand up to her neck. Sure enough, she could feel a large patch of risen skin. Panic rising inside of her, she whipped her head down so that she could stare at her arms. On both of them, right where Felix's hammer had touched them, the scars were there too. Even when she pulled her leggings up, the ugly markings were there as well. She knew what the word 'permanent' meant, but she couldn't stop herself from choking out, "So…So they'll never go away?"

Calhoun shook her head. "Afraid not kid. Like I said, right now they're fresh, so they'll be really noticeable. But they'll fade with time."

Lemona didn't want them to fade with time. She wanted them gone. She wanted to be able to look at herself and not see ugly deformities, painful reminders of her damaged code. She wanted to be a normal girl like the other racers in Sugar Rush. But that could never happen.

Panicking, Lemona turned and ran away from the scene, back towards the castle. Once inside her room, she slammed the door shut and stuck a chair underneath the handle, hoping that would be enough to keep the others out. Then she took a look in the large mirror attached to her desk, bracing herself for what she was about to see.

The horrific red scar on her neck seemed to scream out it's presence to the world, demanding attention no matter what angle she turned her head at. The ones on her legs weren't so bad, as they could easily be hidden by her leggings. Even the ones on her arms didn't have to be seen if she somehow made the sleeves on her shirt longer. But try as she might, she couldn't think of a single way to keep the scar on her neck hidden. It was just there.

Suddenly her despair was replaced by a sudden flash of rage. "Look what being sweet's brought you," she heard a voice in her head hiss. "Nothing but more pain and misery. Why are you even trying? Vanellope and the others can't be your friends. Look at all that they've done to you. Everything terrible that's happened to you is their fault. Why would you even consider forgiveness? Why would you even think of being sweet?"

"But I was the one who suggested tree-climbing," she argued with herself, feeling a glitch wrack through her body and freezing her up before she could finish speaking. "It's not Vanellope's fault. It's mine!"

"You fool," Lemona heard as another glitch went through her. "Are you questioning Turbo? The very person who's been helping you throughout your time of need?"

"No!" Lemona gasped, grabbing her head and shaking it as though trying to get the voice out. "But Vanellope-"

"Is nothing but an actor trying to gain your trust!" hissed the voice in Lemona's head. "And if that happens, then you'll never go through with your plot. You say you will, but you know what will really happen if you befriend that pompous princess. You'll grow soft, like a pile of meringue! And then she'll continue to walk all over you and beat everybody in racing, and absolutely NOTHING will be accomplished. So forget about being sweet, remember what Turbo's taught you, and GET SOUR!"

As soon as the voice in her head vanished, Lemona went back to staring in the mirror. Her reflection stared back as though challenging her: "What are you going to do Lemona?"

Lemona took in everything she saw in her reflection: her piercing green eyes, the hideous neck scar, her down turned mouth. The last thing she saw was her long, blonde hair. It had served as a symbol of her sweet character for herself, and for others. Her pride and joy, she remembered how hard it had been to care for it while living in the Black Liquorice Forest.

Tearing her gaze away from her reflection, Lemona began searching through the drawers in the dresser. It took her a couple of minutes before she finally found what she'd been looking for. Holding the thing up and gripping it tightly, she used her other hand to grab her hair and pull it over her left shoulder. She felt her throat starting to close off out of nervousness, but she maintained a steady hand as she brought the instrument closer and closer to her hair.

Snip. Snip. Snip.

The cut hair fell in bundles at her feet, but Lemona didn't look back as the scissors opened and closed. She couldn't. It was like the voice in her head had said. This was the true beginning of her attitude adjustment.

Please read and review! And by the way, I hope you guys get the idea that her hair is like a symbol for her sweet attitude. I thought it was pretty clever. Until next time!


	8. Chapter 8

Hello everybody! I'm sorry it took so long for me to update again, but I was crazy busy. Luckily, now my holiday break is starting, so I should be able to hopefully update quicker. If you guys have any ideas for this story, let me know! I can't guarantee that I'll use them, but it would be cool to see where you guys think this story is going. Not to mention, I love it when you guys review my story! It makes me feel so happy, so thank you, thank you, thank you!

I hope Chapter 8 does not disappoint, but remember to read and review so that I will know whether it was a success or not. And also remember that I don't own Wreck It Ralph. (the movie or the characters) I do however, own Lemona Lime. She's my OC! Now, on with the show!

Chapter 8

Pain.

That's all Lemona could dream about when she finally fell into a restless sleep that night. It was so fresh in her mind that she felt like she was reliving it. Her tortured screams echoed through her mind, and unconsciously her hands gripped the sheets just as they had gripped the dirt and grass underneath her when she had landed. She remembered wanting a stabilizer, hoping and praying that whatever she grabbed would be able to help her stop the glitches that only made her pain worsen. Finally she couldn't take it anymore and shot up in a cold sweat, panting. Too terrified to harness any other feelings, she unwillingly allowed a glitch to course through her body. When she felt it, she found that there were now certain areas where she could feel the glitch more than others, and those places were where Felix had left scars from his stupid hammer. After the glitch had passed, she found herself resting her hand on top of the scar on her neck. That scar. That horrific reminder of how broken and weak she was.

"But not for long," she found herself whispering, sliding out of the bed in the room Vanellope had proclaimed to be hers. There was no way she'd be able to get back to sleep for at least a couple of hours, and what better way to spend those hours then building up her strength?

As she made her way towards the door, Lemona found herself pausing in front of her mirror, taking in the sight of herself without her full head of hair. Now barely passing her chin, her spiked hair would definitely take some getting used to. "It's so much better then that mess I had before though." Lemona watched her reflection as a smirk grew on her face. "It was always getting in my way and causing problems. That won't be an issue anymore."

It was easier to find the fungeon the third time around, and because it wasn't as late as it had been the first night she'd gone down, she found Turbo still awake. When he first saw the girl, he jumped and a confused expression came across him. Once he realized who it was that was in front of him, the goofy grin Lemona had come to expect blossomed on his face. "Ho, ho! Why my little gumdrop, I do believe there's something different about you!" Hopping off of the bench and approaching her, he brought a hand up to his chin, pretending to be deep in thought. "Don't tell me…You've started flossing with candy floss. Or…you've bought yourself a new shirt. No, wait…I've got it! Your hair! You cut your hair!"

Despite her desire to be sour, Lemona couldn't help smiling at her friend's act. "Well, at least you noticed my hair, and not this ugly thing."

The moment she pointed to the scar on her neck, Turbo's gaze followed her finger. "Great green gob smackers!" he exclaimed, concern flying across his face in an instant. "My dear, what happened to you?"

Lemona did not regret her choice to point out her deformity; Turbo surely would have seen it eventually. But she had no desire to recount her accident, as remembering it was the opposite of what she'd hoped to accomplish down in the fungeon.

"It doesn't matter," she briskly told him, covering the scar once more with her hand.

Turbo seemed to disagree. "Vanellope did that to you, didn't she?" he asked, shaking his head lightly. "I told you, my little lemon drop. She doesn't like other glitches."

Mentioning Vanellope did nothing to make Lemona feel better. "I said it doesn't matter!" she snapped, and just as her anger began to bubble up, she grabbed onto the bars of the jail cell, just in time to stop a glitch that was rising up in her system. The kicking inside of her began, and she quivered and shook for a little while, thankful that the process caused her no pain. Turbo watched her actions silently, but once she was finished shaking, he spoke up with a bit of a kind teasing face that a father figure would have emerging on his face. "My, my, looks like someone's getting a little bit sour." he reached out to place a hand on Lemona's, and she made no move to back away. She was slowly getting used to his ice-cold touch, and was now starting to find it quite comforting.

"It's definitely an improvement," continued Turbo. Whether he was talking about Lemona's ability to hold back glitches or her change from sweet to sour, Lemona wasn't sure. But she made no effort to speak up and ask, comfortable just standing there with his hand on top of hers. Had this have happened a couple of days ago, Lemona was sure she would have started to cry. But her eyes didn't seem to want to unleash any tears, and for that she was thankful. After all, she had told herself to be strong and sour, and that would not be accomplished by sobbing like a sap.

Remembering the reason behind her coming down to the fungeon, Lemona let her eyes close, and dragged up a memory from the darkest corner of her mind. Keeping her attention focussed entirely on her memory, Lemona felt herself embracing it, and soon another glitch was kicking and screaming inside of her. Turbo seemed to realize what she was doing and only gripped her hand tighter, resuming his duty as her stabilizer. The pounding still seemed harder in the areas where her body was not entirely healed and scarred, but though Lemona felt as though the pixels might be able to break through in those areas, they never did. The area on her neck was the worst, as the sharp beating caused her head to jerk to the side, creating the fear inside of Lemona that she may develop some form of whiplash. She remained focused on her memories however, unwilling to falter and allow the glitches to riddle her body.

On the third try, Turbo suddenly released his grip on Lemona's hand, and the sudden lack of body contact caused her to falter. Green eyes shooting open, she stumbled back and a glitch managed to break through her skin, turning her entire body to blue pixels. Letting out a cry as she felt the pains of glitching quickly race through her stomach and head, Lemona waited for the glitch to end before speaking, allowing a stutter to enter her speech. "S-sour lemonade, w-what was th-that for Turbo?"

Turbo didn't answer immediately, which caused Lemona to cautiously approach the jail cell, trying to get a good look at him again. The pink glow to his skin that she had noticed the night before was back, but brighter this time. It wasn't a glow that reminded Lemona of a light. It was more like a healthy flush to his skin, as though he had been running a marathon, but without the exhaustion. He was staring at his hands as though he had never seen them before, which prodded Lemona to speak in a slow and demeaning way, as though he were a five year old. "Those are called _hands_ Turbo. They're great for holding onto things. Like say, oh, I don't know, OTHER PEOPLE'S HANDS WHEN THEY'RE TRYING TO PRACTICE!"

Insane laughter that got louder and crazier was Turbo's only response. "Ha. Ha, ha, ha! Ha ha ha ha ha!" Lemona watched as Turbo started running around his jail cell, shaking his chained hands in front of his face and in front of Lemona's, as though trying to say, "Look, these aren't these the most magnificent things you've ever seen in your life?"

"Yes Turbo, I can see your hands," Lemona spoke again, rolling her eyes playfully at his display. "They're very nice. Unfortunately, they're just HANDS, so I really don't see what the big deal is about them. I mean, the only thing that's different or interesting about them is that they're the color of a glass of pink lemonade, just like the rest of your body. What's up with that anyway?"

"That's it Lemona!" was Turbo's reply, which only confused the girl further. "What's it?"

Turbo ran up to the door of his cell and shoved his hands as close to Lemona's face as they could get. "Take a look, Lemona. They're pink! Pink! Well, more of a salmon color than a pink, but you get the idea! That means our hard work is paying off! We're _both_ getting stronger! Soon I'll be strong enough to break out of this chocolate catastrophe!"

"If you want out so badly, why don't I just find the keys for this place?" offered Lemona. "That little hyperactive pipsqueak wouldn't have put them anywhere too secretive or unknown. Not to mention she still trusts me. I could have you out of here faster than you can say 'lime.'"

Lemona could tell that her offer was tempting by the glimmer of what looked like desire in Turbo's chocolate eyes. But instead of agreeing with her, he shook his head. "No, my sweet, little icing sugar angel. As much as I would love for you to do so, I'm afraid it would not be beneficial for either of us. If Vanellope discovered that you released me, that trust she has in you would disappear, and we need it to exist so that we can find the perfect moment to stab her in the back."

Rolling her eyes at being called an angel, Lemona reached up to grab her hair so she could fiddle with it, remembering its new length only when her fist grabbed nothing but air. At any other point in her life before she'd met Turbo, she would have cringed at the wording he'd chosen to describe their plot. A graphic image of a knife flashing through the air and into Vanellope's back crossed her mind. But now, instead of a grimace, a brief smile of pleasure came across her face. Lemona found it disappeared along with her mental picture just as quickly as they had appeared, not giving her any time to contemplate why she'd done either thing. But as it disappeared, another odd feeling crept its way inside of her. On the left side of her body, underneath her rib cage, an odd hardening seemed to be occurring. It felt like something underneath was growing stiff, but it didn't hurt. It only felt strange. It didn't seem to be causing any problems, so Lemona didn't bring it up when she asked Turbo the real pressing question on her mind. "Hey Turbo, what exactly is gonna happen when I beat Vanellope in the race?"

"Ho ho ho!" At the mentioning of their scheme Turbo seemed to become even jollier, something Lemona wouldn't have thought possible had she not seen it with her own eyes. "My dear, once that race is won, the world will become your oyster! Or should I say, your chocolate filled with a delicious, flavoured centre. The possibilities for you will become endless! You could choose to stay just a racer, or find a new, simple job to do in this game…Or…" here he paused, a wicked grin appearing on his face. "We could take over the game. I could be the King once again, and you, my little Tootsie-Pop, could be the princess!"

Royalty. The very idea of going from a lonely glitch to one of the most powerful figures in the entire game sounded like a dream come true. "Sweet lemon meringue pie!" Lemona found the words flying out of her mouth before she had even processed them in her mind. "Vanellope would be so humiliated that she'd leave Sugar Rush for good!"

There was a pause as Lemona imagined the scene playing out in her mind. But wait…There was a problem. "Turbo, how am I going to be able to win the race against Vanellope with almost no knowledge of how to drive? The first and last time I was in a kart, I crashed, and that was on the _easy_ course."

"Well, your practice with controlling your glitch is making quicker progress then I'd imagined," admitted Turbo, now actually taking some time to think. "So you should be able to drive a bit without glitching. I'm sure that Vanellope won't suspect anything if you ask to practice a little bit, this is a racing game after all. But maybe allow yourself to glitch every once in a while so she doesn't get suspicious. If she finds out that we're seeing each other before the right time, the whole scheme will fall apart."

That all sounded very doable, and thankfully, with the idea of becoming royalty placed in her head, Lemona was no longer thinking about her scars or the events of the day, just as she had hoped to achieve.

"Princess Lemona Lime," she found herself musing, grabbing a stray strand of her short hair and twirling it around with her finger as she thought. She could still feel the stiffening in her chest, though it still wasn't bothering her as she imagined herself as the rightful ruler of Sugar Rush. The image in her head was so marvellous that a sneer was allowed onto her face as she next spoke.

"I kinda like the sound of that."

Until next time, remember to read and review!


	9. Chapter 9

I know it took a little bit, but here's the next chapter! I hope you guys have been enjoying my story, and once again, thanks for the reviews! I get lots of good ideas when I read them, and I really appreciate the feedback! Please enjoy this next chapter!

I don't own Wreck It Ralph, only Lemona Lime. But you guys already knew that, didn't you?

Chapter 9

Vanellope felt like something was wrong the moment Lemona came out of her room with most of her hair completely chopped off and her black cloak draped over her shoulders. Her jaw dropped at the sight, and words spilled out of her mouth like vomit before she even had time to think about them. "Jeez Lemona, what happened? Your hair looks like you got bubble gum stuck in it and you had to cut it out!"

Lemona didn't respond, though what looked to be a scowl started to appear on her face. But then she gave her head a quick shake and the expression was gone, though her mouth remained in a stiff line, like an old piece of liquorice. "Just felt like a change, that's all," Lemona muttered darkly, helping herself to a large pile of sour candy that was on a plate in front of her. "It was getting in my way."

Vanellope opened her mouth to make another quirky comment, but a glare from Ralph made her stop. Any jokes she tried to make would most likely go unappreciated by the grumpy glitch. So instead, Vanellope asked, "So, um…How are you feeling?"

"Never better," was Lemona's dry response. She chose that particular moment to pull her cloak's hood off of her head, revealing the bright red scar on her neck. Vanellope winced at the sight; she still felt bad about what had happened to her friend, and Lemona's strange attitude wasn't really helping the matter. If anything, it was making it worse.

Gathering up the courage to speak again, Vanellope provided a weak smile and jerked her thumb in the direction of the other characters at the table, Ralph, Felix, and Calhoun. "Well, I'm supposed to be racing today, and these three are planning on watching if you want to join us. Or if you'd like, I could ask Candlehead to take my place on the roster board and we could find something else to do."

"No thank you," was Lemona's emotionless response. "You do remember what happened yesterday when you suggested we do something different, don't you? It didn't work out so well."

Vanellope winced again as did everybody else in the room. But Lemona didn't seem to notice as she continued to speak, popping another sour candy into her mouth and swallowing it without shuddering. "I actually thought I'd take a little bit of time to practice driving again. I know it's not in my code, but I would like to see what it's like. From the amount of time you and the other racers spend talking about it, it seems like an absolutely _breath-taking_ experience."

Vanellope's hazel eyes narrowed as she watched Lemona, and she almost asked if her friend was positive that she was feeling alright. The way that she had said the words 'breath-taking' almost sounded sinister and there seemed to be a glimmer of something unidentifiable in her eyes, though there was no way Vanellope was going to believe that her friend was acting that way intentionally. "She's most likely just a little bit angry about all the bad luck that's been thrown her way and maybe a little bit jealous," she thought. "Honestly, who could blame her?"

"Well, we moved your cart to the room beside your bedroom. If you'd like I could push it to the beginner's track before we leave for Vanellope's race," offered Ralph, watching the glowering girl carefully. He too sensed that there was something off about her, but didn't want to jump to any conclusions.

Lemona's eyes darted in Ralph's direction, though her face remained expressionless. "Thank you very much for your kind offer Ralph, but I think I'll be able to manage." She could feel everybody's eyes on her, and instantly knew that she had to change the way she was acting, otherwise they'd get even more suspicious. Forcing a smile onto her face, she made her tone a little bit lighter. Hopefully the next thing she said would make them forget all about their concerns. "I hope your race goes well Vanellope. I'll be rooting for you."

The compliment had its desired effect. Instantaneously a wide grin broke on Vanellope's face, and she bounced up so that she was standing on her chair. "Thanks Lemona! I'm not too concerned about the other racers though. None of them have glitching powers like me, so it's almost impossible for them to keep up!" To prove her point, Vanellope glitched a couple of times, disappearing and reappearing in numerous spots in the main hall before ending up back on her chair.

Fury raged through Lemona as she watched what she thought to be an incredibly supercilious display. It was so bad that she forgot to harness the energy and vibes and ended up glitching unexpectedly. Once it was over, she shoved another sour candy in her mouth and sucked on it furiously, trying to conceal her true emotions once more. Luckily, nobody seemed to notice her, too busy watching Vanellope show off. Just as she was about to glitch again, Ralph grabbed her by the back of her mint green hoodie. "Alright President Braggy-Pants, that's enough of that. We'd better get going. You don't want to be late."

"Oh yeah!" Vanellope's body quivered and she dissolved into a mess of blue pixels, only to have them reappear and transform into the eager little girl sitting in the seat of her cart, which was by the main hall's gigantic wafer cookie doors and ready to be driven. "I hope you enjoy your time on the track too Lemona. Maybe if you get really good on the easy one, we can take you to some of the more complicated ones later!"

The statement made Lemona picture the look of distraught that would appear on Vanellope's face as she beat Vanellope and took over the kingdom of Sugar Rush with Turbo, while Vanellope was exiled to another game. The picture was enough to make her smile, and it didn't worry her, as she knew that the others would contribute the action to the idea that she was imagining herself as a racer. "Oh Vanellope, that would be splendid," she all but hissed out through her marshmallow white teeth. The smile stayed on her face as the four characters all left the castle and Lemona dashed to the room where her cart was located, allowing some dark chuckles of pleasure to escape from her. Everything was going so perfectly!

Jiggling the M&M doorknob, Lemona opened the door to reveal her pride and joy sitting in front of her as though it had been waiting forever. There was a thin layer of icing sugar dust coating it from not being used, but it was fairly easy for Lemona to wipe it off before pushing the cart out of the castle and towards the gumdrop track. Excitement was building up in her system, and she froze up a couple of times from glitching as she pushed the cart. Luckily, none of her trip was uphill; otherwise it would have made it more difficult. She didn't find the cart very heavy, but Lemona was still thankful when she was finally able to stop pushing.

The gumdrop track looked exactly the same as it had the first time Lemona had been there, though she knew things would be very different when she placed herself on it this time. It took some time to move one of the gumdrops so she could roll her cart onto the track, but eventually she and her cart were sitting there ready to go. Lemona pulled her Sour Key out from a pocket on the inside of her black cloak and stuck it into the ignition. The roar of the engine echoed around her as there was no other noise in the area to mix with it. Lemona was completely alone with her cart.

Before she had even started moving, a powerful glitch wracked her body, causing her to cry out in agony. Gripping the steering wheel tightly, she tried to prepare herself for the next one by thinking about how angry she had been when she'd heard Vanellope bragging. She had known that this was going to be difficult, but it was something that had to be done.

Once she had the memory bouncing around her head, she wasn't sure exactly how to proceed. If she opened her eyes, she wouldn't be able to focus on her memories, and ferocious glitching would be the result. She had to try though.

Keeping her mind focussed on her memories, Lemona carefully opened up her eyes. Watching the track in front of her, she released the brake pedal slowly, allowing her cart to begin to inch slowly around the track. Unfortunately, her assumption was accurate, and because her attention was not fully on her memories, the kicking glitches were able to escape and reveal themselves on her skin, causing her body pain and her cart to fly into the gumdrop wall. Lemona took a few minutes to take a couple of deep breaths and calm herself down, but then she was right back at it. Her grip tightened on her steering wheel with every attempt, but no matter how hard she tried, driving with her eyes open just wasn't working. Finally she decided her only other option, even though it was absolutely ludicrous, was to try driving with her eyes closed.

"This is something experienced drivers would brag about being able to do," Lemona griped to herself, not finding the irony of her situation funny. "Yet here I am, the girl who's only driven twice with both times ending in failure, ready to attempt it. I must have a jelly bean for a brain."

It had to be done though. Knowing this, Lemona took a deep breath, shut her eyes, and released the brake pedal. Her cart slowly began to inch it's way forward, but Lemona didn't see any of it. "Black…Black…Black…Spots of color…Wait, what? Holy Lemon Hot Cakes!"

Even though Lemona knew it was dangerous to take her hands off of the steering wheel, she found herself releasing her grip with her right hand, which she used to deliver a painful pinch to her opposite side. "Ow!"

Okay, she wasn't dreaming. But if that was the case and her eyes were still closed…why were the blobs of color shape-shifting into the shapes of the various things surrounding her on the track?

Her confusion led to her crashing into another gum drop, and her entire body jerked with the impact. Her eyes flew open, and she saw there was no change in what she saw.

Having no idea what had just happened, Lemona calmed herself down before shifting her cart into reverse and putting herself back onto the track. She had to admit, the incident had been alarming, but a trickle of curiosity inside of her was starting to pour out like a river. What had just happened, and more importantly, would it happen again?

Lemona removed her foot from the brake again, closed her eyes, and sure enough, it wasn't long before she could suddenly see everything clear as day. It startled her, because she was sure that her eyes were not opening without her knowing. After she crashed a couple of more times, she shut her cart's engines off so she could think. Acting startled every time her strange power appeared was distracting her from her angry thoughts, allowing her to glitch. If she wanted to be able to actually drive, she had to just deal with what has happening, no matter how weird and confusing it was.

With that theory in her head, Lemona took a deep breath and shut her emerald orbs for what she hoped to be the last time. Taking hold of the steering wheel with a grip as tight as taffy, her cart backed up and aligned itself on the track. Then, with her hope burning inside of her as well as the same angry memory bouncing around in her brain, Lemona released the brake pedal again.

The cart's movement started off slow, but as the blackness before her turned into the track in front of her, Lemona slowly got more courageous, pushing down a little harder on the accelerator as time passed by. Keeping her mind on her thoughts, her glitches couldn't break through and cause her grief, and she was able to direct her cart without even thinking about what she was doing. Soon she was flying around the circular track, the wind hurling itself in her face, reddening her cheeks and making her shut eyes water. It was so strong that she could hardly feel the water trickling down her cheeks.

To say that driving was an incredible experience seemed like a horrible understatement to the delighted glitch. Objects blurred together into masses of color as she roared past, and Lemona could barely breath as she ripped around the track. Driving made her feel free for lack of a better word, and even as she concentrated on her angry thoughts to prevent herself from glitching, utter joy managed to leak out of her. A smile carved itself onto her face, and she let out a scream of pleasure, for once not caring whether anyone heard her or not. "Woohoo!" If she could have had it her way, she would have spent the entire day flying around that track, but the minute she crossed the finish line, she had an even better idea. Ripping through the hole she'd made in the wall previously, she steered her cart towards the white chocolate castle that she was currently calling home.

Once she arrived, she jumped out of her cart, almost forgetting to shut it off first in her excitement. Running as fast as she could, she started to head towards the fungeon before she got another brilliant idea. Turning around, she directed herself towards the room Vanellope Von Schweetz slept in. The door wasn't locked, so Lemona looked around to make sure nobody was around before opening it and slipping inside.

The walls were salmon colored like the rest of the inside of the castle, but the contents inside the room confirmed Lemona's suspicions; this was indeed Vanellope's sanctuary. The entire wall where the door stood was apparently where Vanellope kept her medals and trophies, and the little cavity had so many that you could hardly tell that there was a wall there. There was a designated area right beside her sponge cake bed where Lemona suspected her cart sat whenever it was not being used, and last but not least, photos of the little pest surrounded by her friends were stuck all over the other walls and the mirror on her dresser, stuck with extra-sticky taffy.

Gazing around, Lemona felt her heart come to a brief halt. How would she ever find what she was looking for with all of the cavity's stuff everywhere? She had no idea how long it would be before Vanellope and the others returned, and Lemona did not want to get caught doing what she was doing. So she gave her head a brief shake and set to work, rummaging through all of the dressers and drawers in search of what she wanted to find.

Just when she was about to give up and just go to the fungeon empty-handed, Lemona spotted the treasure she'd been searching for dangling on a Laffy Taffy string that was hanging on a milk chocolate bed post. She yanked on the string, snapping it, and tore out of Vanellope's room as quickly as she could, not even bothering to put the picture that had fallen down as a result back on the bed post. Her treasure clutched tightly in a sweaty palm, Lemona ran down the steps to the fungeon, only stopping once she'd reached Turbo's cell. Panting and struggling to catch her breath, she couldn't stop herself from letting out a giggle of pleasure as she gasped out, "Turbo…You'll never guess…what happened. I…I did it! I drove! And it was amazing! At first it seemed like I wasn't going to be able to. But then I tried it with my eyes closed, and something weird happened. I was actually able to see everything even though my eyes were closed!"

"Hoo hoo!" Turbo leapt for joy at the news, his silver chains rattling as he did. When he landed, he ran to the door of his cell, his fatherly pride evident on his face. "Oh Lemona! I'm so proud of you, my little lime filled chocolate cordial! Not only are you able to drive, but by doing so you must have strengthened one of the qualities that the programmers programmed you with! It's almost like a superpower!"

Lemona's smile only seemed to grow as she whipped out her treasure to show Turbo: the fungeon keys. "Come on. We can bake you a cart and drive around before the little cavity returns home from her day of racing. No one will even know you were gone."

Confident with her plan, Lemona stuck the correct key into the door's keyhole. Giving it a turn, the door unlocked and opened with an unearthly squeak that told Lemona that it was in desperate need of some syrup. Turbo stepped out of his prison and watched in wonder as Lemona stuck another key into the shackles and unlocked them. They fell to the floor with a clatter, and both watched them silently. Then Turbo's eyes darted up to meet Lemona's. "Lemona…why are you doing this?"

Lemona meet Turbo's gaze evenly. "Turbo, I am a glitch. Racing and driving are two things that aren't even built into my coding. If it hadn't been for you, I never would have been able to set foot in a cart. Now, not only can I drive, I can somewhat control my glitching! I actually feel in control of myself. You've done so much for me…I just need to thank you. You're going to make an incredible king."

Overwhelmed by her emotions, Lemona stepped forward and wrapped her arms around her friend, burying her face in his shoulder. There was a moment where Turbo did nothing out of shock, but soon his arms folded themselves around her as well. Though Turbo's body was quite cold, just like his hands, Lemona felt content in this position. Not even the fact that she was sour was enough to make her want to pull away. She almost wished that Turbo could take over her actions so that she wouldn't have to move. She had some black liquorice hidden inside of her cloak, so getting out of her predicament wouldn't have been a problem once they wanted to head out to drive. But for now, she was completely at peace.

Which is why her blood ran cold when she suddenly heard a squeaky, high-pitched, feminine voice behind her cry out, "Lemona?"

I really hope you guys like it. If there's any questions you have or things that are bothering you about the story, feel free to let me know. (Just be kind about it) You can also let me know what you like about the story! Remember to review, review, review! Thanks again guys! Until next time!


	10. Chapter 10

Hooray! This story now has ten chapters! I hope you enjoy this next chapter. Things will start getting even more intense. Please remember to read and review and tell me what you think. I still love hearing what you have to say! To be honest, I'm a little bit jealous of the writers whose stories have hundreds of reviews. I would love to be able to do that.

I do not own Wreck It Ralph or the characters, only my OC Lemona Lime, and once again, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 10

Ralph tore down the bleachers towards the race track for the fourth time that day, Felix and Calhoun on his heels. Something was not right. Normally, the only time Vanellope crashed her cart was when she was being driven by a new gamer who wasn't used to the controls. Today she had been crashing all day. Ralph was pretty sure her head wasn't in the game.

Crossing the track to the mess that Vanellope's cart had become, Ralph scooped up the little racer in his gigantic hands and held her up while Felix set to work repairing the cart. Holding her up at eye level, Ralph gave her a puzzled look. "Kid, what gives? That's the fifth time you've crashed today, and it's only a couple of hours after lunchtime!"

Normally Vanellope would have started squirming in his grasp or glitched out of the position she was in, but this time she just hung like a coat on a coat rack. Her hazel eyes widened out of concern as she stared back at Ralph. "Sorry Sir Stinks-a-lot, I just can't stop thinking about Lemona. You saw how she was acting this morning! I can't help but feel like there's something wrong!"

"Yeah, I'll admit, there was something off about her this morning," admitted Ralph, remembering Lemona's strange attitude throughout their breakfast. "You think we should ask her what's going on?"

"Negatory," butted in Calhoun, who had been listening silently as she watched her husband work. "This strange behaviour could be the result of a virus, and if it's a virus, she may not realize she has it. She may not realize that anything is different or wrong about her. Our best bet if we want to know what's going on is to go into the game's coding again."

"Well what are we waiting for?" Ready for action, Vanellope glitched into her newly-repaired cart and revved the engine. "My subjects can race without me for a little bit. I wasn't really doing that well anyways."

So the group headed back towards the castle. Sour Bill let them inside with his dead-pan expression still on his face, and they all headed down the hallway towards the door that provided access to all of Sugar Rush's coding. Vanellope was about to go inside alone when Ralph halted her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "We're coming with you kid." That was all he needed to say. Once the door's password had been entered inside and the door opened, the group dove inside and started to swim. Everybody followed Vanellope because she had been the one to find Lemona's coding before. Glowing blue wires and multi-colour boxes were everywhere, and everyone had to be careful that they didn't bump into any of it. The slightest bump could cause problems, and with the arcade open, they couldn't afford any problems.

It was easy for Vanellope to find the place where Lemona's coding was supposed to be. But when she saw the blue strings of numbers and letters, she had to do a double take. What she had first seen as weak, limp strings were now much stronger. They were not as strong as the coding of the characters without glitches, but there had definitely been some unknown improvement. Not to mention, they were also starting to turn a dark shade of black. One of the changing wires sparked as Vanellope carefully brushed it with her hand, and then something else caught her attention. Turning her head towards it, Vanellope felt herself go speechless along with everyone else who looked where she was looking.

Finally Felix said the words that were on everybody's mind: "Oh my land."

The main code boxes, the ones with the character names written on them, were where all of the wires and codes that made up the characters were connected. Each was a different color, depending on the personality of the character they were programmed to keep alive. In a sense, the boxes were the hearts of the characters, pumping electrical energy like blood into the pulsing blue codes and wires. If anything happened to the box or the wires, it directly affected the characters.

Vanellope distinctly remembered Lemona's box being yellow the last time she'd seen it. Now, there was a horrid black-brown substance completely covering it. It seemed quite thick, and when Vanellope reached out to touch it, she realized it was hard too. Carefully, she scraped a little bit of the coating off, and sniffed it. It didn't smell bad. In fact, it smelled like chocolate. So before Ralph or any of the others could stop her, she stuck her finger in her mouth to taste it. There was a pause as she smacked her lips and rolled her tongue around in her mouth, trying to figure out what the taste was. Suddenly she got it. "Ralph, her memory box is coated in almond rocca!"

"Oh my land!" Felix repeated, his hands flew up to cover his mouth, but his eyes betrayed his true feelings. "What's happening to her?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Calhoun demanded, picking up one of the wires with a glove covered hand and inspecting it. "Something's corrupting her code, and whatever it is, it's been working quickly.

"Corrupted?" A light seemed to go off in Vanellope's head. "That explains the way she was acting this morning! Come on! We've gotta find her!"

Vanellope turned around and swam out of the coding room as fast as her little arms and legs could carry her. Everybody else followed suite, and when they were back in the doorway, they saw Sour Bill waiting expectantly.

"Your Highness, did you happen to go into your room earlier?" he asked in his monotone. "I was just about to go inside, but I saw your door open a crack."

"What?" That didn't sound good to Ralph, who watched as Vanellope's face paled as she spoke. "My door was closed when I left this morning." She turned to Ralph, a look of wild panic flaring up in her eyes. "Come on Booger Breath!"

Vanellope tore down the hallway, her friends still right behind her. Unfortunately, Vanellope was so stressed that she glitched away, so by the time Ralph, Felix, and Calhoun got to her room, she had already been inside. She was gripping a photo of herself and Ralph and staring at it, the fear plain on her face. That emotion was not one that Vanellope liked being expressed; she was a lot like Calhoun in that sense. Seeing it so clearly made Ralph know that something serious had happened. "Kid? What's wrong?"

Vanellope ran up to him, flapping the picture in her hand frantically. "Take a look at this photo Ralph. Look at it!"

Ralph had no idea what the picture had to do with anything, but his friend was in so much of a panic that he felt it wouldn't be a good time to ask about it. So he obeyed, taking the picture and giving it a good, hard look. Nothing seemed wrong with it. "This is the picture we took of us after your very first race as president."

Vanellope nodded. "I keep it stuck on my bed post with extra sticky taffy so that when I get up every morning it's the first thing I see. I found it on the floor."

Ralph still didn't really get it. "Vanellope, I don't see—"

"Think about it Ralph!" shrieked Vanellope, a wildness taking over her as she threw her hands in the direction of her bedpost. "What do I keep hanging on the bedpost with that picture?"

"Nothing, except for the keys to the fungeon." Suddenly Ralph understood the reason behind Vanellope's panic. "Oh no."

"Oh yes," Vanellope nodded, confirming his suspicions. "The keys are gone. Someone _stole_ them Ralph."

"Jiminy jaminy," Felix gasped, and Calhoun whipped out her machine gun. "We'd better get down to the fungeon pronto and make sure Turbo's still down there!"

As the situation got worse and worse, the four found themselves moving faster and faster. If Turbo somehow managed to free himself, they would have a real situation on their hands. Not to mention, they still hadn't found Lemona. Vanellope couldn't stop herself from praying that Turbo hadn't done anything to her.

Arriving in the fungeon, they made their way to the cell Turbo was supposed to be locked up in. Before they made it that far, Calhoun gestured to the floor with her gun. "Look. Footprints."

"They're probably mine," Vanellope brushed off Calhoun's observation. "I come down here twice a day to feed the no good, rotten piece of black liquorice. Today because I was racing I asked…Adorabeezle!"

Picking up the pace, everybody ran to the cell. Pieces of candy littered the floor and it looked as though a brawl had gone down right in front of it. There was somebody inside the cell, but it wasn't Turbo. The person sitting and tied up with chains was none other than Adorabeezle. She was shivering in the cold fungeon, and her face was tear-stained. There was a goose bump the size of a jawbreaker on the top of her head. When she saw Vanellope, she started sobbing fresh tears. "Vanellope! Thank snow cones! Please, let me out of here!"

Immediately, Ralph used his hands to beat the cell door down, and everybody rushed inside. Without the keys to the fungeon, Vanellope was no help in getting Adorabeezle out of the chains, but Calhoun shot a couple of bullets in a couple of certain places, and within moments, the chains tumbled to the floor around Adorabeezle's feet. Still sobbing, Adorabeezle threw herself graciously at Vanellope. "Thank you! Thank you!"

A lump swelled in Vanellope's throat, and she tried to swallow it so that she could look as comforting as she could be under the circumstances. "Adorabeezle, what happened? Where's Turbo?"

"Gone!" gasped out the terrified racer, choking out her words along with her sobs. "I came down to give him his breakfast like you asked, and I saw him out of his cell." Here Adorabeezle sniffed, and her voice lowered to a hushed whisper. "Lemona was down here too. She was hugging him! And when they heard me behind them…They knocked me out and threw me in the cell."

Vanellope didn't want to believe it, but she knew that Adorabeezle was too traumatized to be lying. She continued to hold the sobbing racer, but turned her head so that she was looking straight at Ralph. Her orders flew out of her mouth in a commanding tone that she'd only had to use once before: when everyone had assumed there was a Cybug in the Black Liquorice Forest.

"Ralph, Felix, Calhoun, let's go. We've gotta visit every race track in Sugar Rush. Chances are that's where they'll be.

"What are we gonna do when we find them?" Calhoun asked, shifting her weight onto one side as she adjusted her grip on her gun.

Vanellope was silent for a moment. Then she looked at Ralph again, biting her lip. "I don't know."

"Did you see the look on her face when you hit her with your cane? Priceless!"

Lemona grinned deviously as she whipped around another corner on the track and passed Turbo, who was speeding along in his white chocolate cart. They had managed to find it hidden in the kingdom's bakery and were now racing each other playfully on one of the more complicated tracks. This one had a sugar cane forest theme, complete with tall trees made of sugar canes that had delicious candied apples growing plentifully. This track was also one with power ups, so Lemona threw her head back and laughed as her cart ran into one and she obtained the Sweet Seekers gun. "Here, have some candy!" she cackled, loading up the gun and jamming her finger on the big red button on her cart that would unleash the fiery power up.

"Hey, that's my line!" Turbo exclaimed playfully, yanking his steering wheel expertly from side to side in a desperate attempt to dodge what was being thrown at him. He managed to swerve around two of them, but the final one clipped the side of his cart, throwing it into a spiral. Cursing loudly, Turbo tried to get his cart back into control, and luckily he got back on track just before his cart drove into a ditch on the side of the Rocky Road. By the time he crossed the finish line, Lemona had put her cart in park, a vivid grin on her face. "I win again."

"Turbo-Tastic!" Turbo chuckled, shaking his head with amusement and adjusting his red bow-tie. "I swear Lemona, if you keep this up, you'll be an even better racer than me!"

"Really?" Lemona hopped out of her cart and bounced up on the hood of Turbo's her smile still on her face. "Sweet and sour lemonade! I haven't had this much fun since I tried going tree-climbing." She felt her neck again when she mentioned that day. Her scars were definitely getting better; they weren't quite as red now. But they could still be seen pretty easily. Keeping her hand on her neck, Lemona made sure to keep her smile on her face. She didn't want her day to be ruined just because she was talking about them. "The only difference is that nothing bad can happen because nobody knows we're doing this."

"Guess again, Lemona."

Never in a million years would Lemona have expected that voice to appear behind her. Startled, she whipped her head around, and the sudden motion made her tumble from Turbo's hood onto the road. Quickly jumping to her feet, she stared in utter shock and disbelief at the four characters in front of her, all of which did not look happy to see her. Ralph was cracking his knuckles, while Felix held his hammer tightly at his side and Vanellope stood with her arms crossed over her chest. Calhoun's face was riddled with a scowl and she had her gun aimed directly at Lemona and Turbo. That lady did seem pretty passionate about her guns.

Her blood running cold, Lemona gave the four a panicked smile. "Vanellope!" Too high. There was no way that could pass off as normal and casual. "I thought you'd be racing all day. What brings you here?"

"Someone was in my room," was the president's stiff response, "and someone locked up Adorabeezle in the fungeon. We learned something horrible about your coding and we were concerned about you, but we couldn't find you. It was like you'd vanished." Vanellope's serious expression grew darker as she spoke. "Just like the keys to the fungeon."

"Oh, you mean these keys?" Trying again to hide her fear, Lemona gave the quartet in front of her a smirk and held out the mentioned keys tauntingly. "You know, you really shouldn't leave these in such obvious places." She was lying; it hadn't been easy finding them. But there was no reason to let them know that. Besides, for some reason she felt like gloating. It helped the fear leave her system, and allowed pride and satisfaction to take its place.

"What are you doing kid?" Now it was Ralph's turn to speak, and he sounded even more panicked than Lemona had been. "Don't you remember what we told you about Turbo? That guy's dangerous!"

"Oh really?" So they were deciding to go back to _that _story. Well, Lemona wasn't going to back down without a fight. "Is it him that's dangerous Ralph? Or is it HER?"

As she jabbed her finger in Vanellope's general direction, a glitch started to build up inside of her, due to the amount of rage in her words. Everybody saw the glitch coming, but Turbo was the only one to react, grabbing onto Lemona's hand as she shut her eyes and held back what was supposed to come. Once the jerking and spasms stopped, she opened her eyes again to see everybody staring at her with even more shock on their faces.

"Wait…That wasn't the first time you'd been down in the fungeon, was it?" Vanellope demanded, pointing an accusatory finger right back at Lemona. "You've been seeing Turbo ever since we locked him down there, haven't you? That's why you know how to hold back your glitches! You didn't learn how to do it in your room, Turbo's been teaching you!"

The little cavity was smart; she was putting the pieces of the puzzle together. Lemona knew that telling the truth was inevitable. There was no way that she'd be able to deny the accusations. And really, what reason did she have to deny what had been going on right under Vanellope's nose? Lemona's smile disappeared and was replaced with a dark scowl just as ugly as Calhoun's as she spoke again. "Yes Vanellope, I'll admit it. Turbo's been helping me. And he's also the guy that told me what YOU did to my coding!"

"Huh?" Bewilderment clouded Vanellope's thoughts and rang out in her tone. "What are you talking about Lemona?" The intensity of the events that were taking place was making her face pale until it was whiter than a mound of whipped cream, and Felix grabbed onto her hand reassuringly, as though ready to help her if she suddenly swooned. Vanellope now understood why Lemona's code was being corrupted, and she needed to figure out a way to make Lemona realize that what she believed wasn't true and that it was causing her body more harm than good.

"Oh please," Lemona snarled back, her emotions continuing to boil inside of her. "Don't play dumb with me Vanellope. We all know that you're the one who destroyed my coding and gave me my glitches, just so that I wouldn't be able to race."

"What?!" The news was too much for Vanellope to take and the word exploded out of her as her hazel eyes narrowed in disgust and fury at Turbo. "Is that the crud this psychopathic pile of toxic waste has been feeding you? Lemona, that's ridiculous! Why wouldn't I want you to race?"

"Shut your chew hole kid," Calhoun advised Vanellope, her military urges kicking in. "I've dealt with this sort of thing before." Directing her attention back at Lemona, she spoke in a calm, but strict tone that told Lemona she meant business. "Listen kid, this scum has been lying to you since Day One, and staying with him is causing your code to become horrendously corrupted. Why don't you just step away, we'll lock him back up in the prison, and then we can continue this discussion in a calm, safe manner elsewhere?"

"Are you daft?" demanded Lemona, shooting daggers back at the quartet. Another glitch threatened to take over her, but with the amount of negative emotions inside of her to harness, she was able to hold it back with ease. The stiffening inside of her chest that she had felt that night returned, though now it didn't feel uncomfortable. Instead, it was almost comforting. But she didn't have time to think about it. She needed to figure out what she and Turbo were going to do about the four pests standing in front of the only exit.

"Do you honestly think that I'm going to believe that he's been lying to me after all the things that he's done for me?" the anger in her voice was making it quite shrill, and the four winced at the sound, but didn't respond. Lemona continued to speak, needing to get everything out. There would be no more secrets. Besides, once she and Turbo dealt with the four cavities, it wouldn't matter what she had told them.

"You didn't want me to beat you in any races, did you Vanellope?" Lemona continued to snap. "But you decided you didn't want to throw me in the fungeon with Turbo. So what did you do? You got one of the other racers to destroy my coding and completely remove racing from it so that I would think I had no purpose! Then you invited all those glitch-hating twits to your castle so that they could laugh and make fun of me, further destroying my confidence. And yes, you may have acted like a kind and loving president by offering to allow me to work in the castle, but then you made me fall out of a tree, breaking every bone in my body, and then, when you supposedly tried to 'fix' me, you gave me these!"

While everyone's attention was directed at her face, Lemona took the opportunity to reach into her pocket and pull out some black liquorice. Wordlessly, she reached behind her and passed it to Turbo, who took it from her instantly. He could tell that a plan was forming in her mind, and once she was sure Turbo had gotten the hint, she took a deep breath and continued speaking.

"Now that I think about it Vanellope, you've done a lot for me too." Everybody watched warily as Lemona began walking up to Vanellope, who looked like she wanted to back up the closer Lemona got, but stood her ground, trying to look brave. They all looked like they weren't sure who to keep a better eye on, the angry girl or the manipulative psychopath who had convinced her to free and trust him. Calhoun kept her gun trained on Turbo, but her eyes kept darting back and forth from the man to the girl.

Lemona continued to advance, a sick smirk curling up on her lips. "You know what? I think I'll repay the favour by taking over your kingdom, kicking you out of it, and then, when you're stuck inside of another game, _deleting your code_!"

Snarling the last part, Lemona reached out her arms and gave Vanellope a vicious shove. Crying out in pain, Vanellope stumbled back and tripped over her feet, tumbling face first into a chocolate mud puddle. Ralph was the first to react, leaping over to her to try and catch her before she actually landed in the puddle, and the sudden movement caused the tense Calhoun to shoot her gun. The bullet whizzed towards Turbo, but he ducked just in time, revving his engine so that he was headed straight towards the group. Before anybody could do anything, he grabbed the now frozen Lemona, and shoved the black liquorice in her mouth along with Vanellope's. Then he tore away with his foot stomped down on the accelerator, the cart roaring away as fast as it could go. They left Ralph, Felix, Calhoun, Vanellope, and Lemona's cart in the dust. As Ralph helped Vanellope to her feet, she felt utterly hopeless and betrayed. "Ralph…" she gasped, staring up at him with defeat in her hazel eyes. "I'm doomed."

Bum, bum, bum! Sorry, I had to do it. I'll try to update ASAP, but I'm still kinda busy. Once again, please review! Thanks for reading guys! You are all amazing! Ciao!


	11. Chapter 11

I'm so sorry that this took so long and that it's so short! I had the ideas, but I just didn't feel like writing it all out until now. I really hope that you guys like it, some of the stuff that is in this chapter was inspired by what you've been suggesting in your reviews! Please remember to read and review, because I love it when you guys do that! Now please enjoy this chapter and remember that I don't own Wreck-It-Ralph and the characters, just Lemona Lime.

Chapter 11

"That's enough of that talk, pint-size," Calhoun barked, unloading her gun and letting it hang by her side. Her first instinct was to take off after the criminals, but she knew she couldn't leave her husband and friends behind. They needed to be part of this as well, especially Vanellope; this was her game and her problem. Nevertheless, she wished she had her cruiser, but she'd left it in her game so that she could take the train with Felix that morning like he'd wanted.

Vanellope turned her head to stare at the soldier like she had just said she'd decided to start dating a Cybug. "Are you nuts? You heard Lemona. My coding is as good as gone!"

Calhoun's scowl didn't leave her face. "You changed the password to the door to the coding, didn't you? That will buy us a little time to catch up with them, and sometimes a little is all you need."

The look of fear still hadn't left Vanellope's face. "But what happens when we catch up with them? I don't know how to fix Lemona's code box! Almond rocca is one of the hardest sweets I know of! I don't even know how it got all over her code box!"

"Hate is good at causing one's heart to harden," Calhoun replied in a stiff tone. She knew exactly what she was talking about. Her own horrible back-story had created a hatred for Cybugs that had hardened her own ticker and turned her into the tough-as-nails soldier she was today. If it hadn't been for her meeting Felix, she most likely would have stayed that way forever. Now, she was still quite hard and commanding, (she had to be with a job like hers) but there was a softness to her that she wasn't ashamed to reveal at times. Unfortunately, Lemona was too young to be thinking about love and marriage, so that plan was forgotten before it was even mentioned. However, if they could convince her that they truly cared about her…Maybe there was a chance.

"We need a place to think and plan," Ralph's voice broke through Calhoun's own thoughts, but that was fine. He was saying what she would have eventually said anyway. "The palace obviously won't work, that's where those two are headed. You can't leave the game Vanellope; if Turbo and Lemona manage to do something to your code, you may be able to regenerate if you stay here, but if you leave and something happens…you may not come back. Maybe we should head to Diet Cola Mountain."

Vanellope started to agree, but paused just as she was about to jump into her cart. Her eyes squinted in confusion, and she pointed to a side of the track. "Ralph, why is there a bunch of Fuzzy Peaches growing on those trees? I thought only candied apples grew in this forest?"

Ralph didn't think that such an observation was really important considering what was going on at the moment. But he couldn't stop Vanellope from running over to the patch of the mismatched trees that were on the side of the race track. Pausing just in front of the trees, she gave two of them a poke just to determine that they were real. Once she'd confirmed that they were, she started to walk into the forest. But just as she passed the two trees that she'd touched, her body disappeared in a flash of blue code.

"Vanellope!" Thinking that Turbo and Lemona had somehow managed to delete his best friend's code, Ralph tore towards the peach trees, Calhoun and Felix right on his heels.

Once they passed the peach trees, their surroundings suddenly changed, and all three characters jerked to a stop. They had somehow passed through an invisible wall and were now in what seemed to be a cabin made of chocolate logs. That wasn't enough to make Ralph forget about Vanellope. Calling out her name frantically, he turned his head in every direction, praying that she was there.

"Settle down Stinkbrain, I'm right here." Ralph breathed a sigh of relief the instant he heard the insult. Now he could relax a little bit and take a look at their surroundings. He wasn't surprised that Vanellope had been the first person to find this place; finding the door to the bonus level between the two sugar free lollipops had proved to him that she was observant. Unfortunately, she hadn't been observant enough; otherwise she would have noticed sooner that Lemona was getting into trouble. But he wasn't about to start pointing fingers, especially when he knew that he hadn't been very observant either.

Vanellope was walking around examining everything, from the many shelves of tools to the fireplace with the charred ashes that seemed to have been left there for a very long time. Ralph followed her gaze, accidentally walking into a work bench as a result. "Oof!" he gasped, grabbing the bench before it could topple onto its side. He received a glare and a chastising, "Be careful!" from Vanellope. Then her face softened and she asked the question on everyone's mind: "I think this place appeared when we got our upgrade. But what's it supposed to be?"

"It looks like a workshop," Felix was inspecting some of the drawers that were in the strange building, uncovering numerous types of candy shaped in a variety of different shapes. "You know, for building things. You don't suppose this is where the carts are supposed to be built?"

"No way!" Vanellope protested, shaking her head. "It's way too small, and we've already got the factory. But…" she went over to where Felix was standing and took a good look at the candies he was looking at. "These all look like parts. Wheels, engines, joysticks, everything!" She turned her head towards Ralph. "You don't suppose this is where the parts for the carts are made, do you?"

Before Ralph could answer, his hand pressed down on a button sitting on one of the shelves. Suddenly a bright screen that covered an entire wall was turned on, making the wall appear to be grey, crackling static. All four characters watched cautiously as the static disappeared, and words jumped out at them in bright colors. The words read, "Behind the Scenes of Sugar Rush: The Workshop."

"What's going on?" Vanellope had to shout over the movie, which was now playing the Sugar Rush theme song.

"I think this is bonus material," Calhoun shouted back. Because her game was newer, she had more experience with newer things in games that the others weren't used to. "Sometimes the programmers of a game will put it in to be unlocked if a gamer gets past a certain point in the game. In my game, it gets revealed if you kill a certain number of Cybugs."

Before she could go into more detail, the title on the screen and the music disappeared, and two men took their place. "You don't suppose those are the programmers?" he whispered, but Vanellope shushed him, as the men were starting to speak.

"When we decided to upgrade Sugar Rush, we were really trying to think up ways to make the game different without taking away what the kids love about the game," one of the men began. "We knew they would want new tracks, and possibly new characters, but we also thought that sometimes the kids get bored of only being able to race. So we decided to make some new mini games, and thus, Lemona's Workshop was born."

"Ralph!" Ralph turned to Vanellope, whose eyes had widened to the size of saucers. "Did they just say-?"

As she trailed off, a picture appeared on the screen. It was just a sketch, consisting of many lines, curves, and shading, but it was definitely Lemona. Ralph felt an ache in his gut as he stared at Lemona's shy and innocent smile and her floor length hair. That was how she had looked when they had first met, and he knew that that was what she was truly supposed to look like, not what she was turning into now.

Keeping his attention focussed on the screen, he watched as it went back to the programmers. "This is Lemona Lime, a girl who we decided would not be a racer, simply because there are already so many options for racers for the kids to choose from. It was possible for her to race, but we thought it would be a good idea to give her another, more important, job. So we turned her into an auto parts builder," the other man was saying. "We created a number of mini games involving her so that the kids could collect the candy needed to make the cart pieces. It would all be brought to Lemona's workshop and then the kids could build the parts and then use them to put their carts together. In order to do all of this, we had to give Lemona a number of abilities because Sugar Rush has a number of different environments. She could climb trees, swim in taffy puddles, and her eyes had been programmed so that she can move around safely no matter where she is and how much light there is around her. She could be inside one of the darkest caves, and she'd still be able to see every stalactite and stalagmite clearly. To actually be able to play as her and make her move, the players just needed to tap her, and they'd be in control of her avatar."

"Unfortunately, when we allowed kids to test out this version of the game, we found that the kids just weren't as interested in the games as they thought they would be," the other programmer mentioned. "Plus, all of the mini games were taking up a lot of data and space, so we had to delete Lemona and everything surrounding her. It was a hard decision to make, because we felt we'd created a really likeable character, but we did it because we felt it was best for the game."

A conclusion then followed, but nobody felt that it was important to watch, so they all turned to speak with each other as the video finished and the screen shut itself off. "I don't understand," Vanellope looked up, her voice soft as she barely managed to get out her words. "If Lemona was deleted…why's her code still in the game?"

Felix and Ralph had no answer, but Calhoun seemed to be full of them today. "Sometimes when programmers try to delete things, if the code is strong enough, bits and pieces will remain in the game. She may have been weak when we found her, but that girl is a fighter. Her code didn't want to leave, and it accepted the consequences."

Ralph was just about to ask what Calhoun meant by consequences when he remembered Vanellope's first description of Lemona's wiring- "A bunch of candy necklace strings." He remembered her horrendous glitching and her loss of control every time someone laid a hand on her or even slightly bumped her. He remembered how shy and fragile she had appeared to be.

"We have to remind her of that," Ralph found himself speaking out loud. Everybody turned to him with faces that revealed they had no idea what he was talking about, so he clarified. "We have to remind her that even though she's a glitch, she doesn't need Turbo to be strong. She knows how to take care of herself."

"Yeah!" Now Vanellope had a grin on her face and in the spur of the moment, she jumped as high as she could, nodding energetically. "She managed to survive in the Black Liquorice Forest all by herself. And now we know that she's got a purpose! Her workshop is here all ready for her! She's bound to go back to normal if we tell her all of this!"

"I hate to be the party-pooper here little dear," Felix butted in, his nickname for Vanellope causing him to receive a raised eyebrow from her. He ignored it and nervously adjusted his navy blue cap as he spoke. "But how are we going to make Lemona listen to us? When she's with Turbo, he's all she listens to! He'll be doing everything in his power to make her think that we're the bad guys!"

"Then we'll just have to prove that we're not," Vanellope now had her mind completely made up. "Come on guys!" She ran out of the workshop the same way she'd ran in, and the others followed her once more. Leaping into her cart and starting it up, she was just about to rip towards the castle when Ralph grabbed her cart from behind. "What do you think you're doing? You can't race off and leave us in the dust! We'd never be able to keep up, and there's no way you're going to the castle by yourself! You wouldn't last a minute against the two of them by yourself."

Pouting profusely, Vanellope crossed her arms over her chest. "Hey, I'm not as weak as I look either Doody Dude!"

"That doesn't matter," Ralph responded firmly, starting to push the cart himself. "I'm not going to risk losing you again. We're doing this as a team." The mere thought of Vanellope getting hurt and him not being around to help her was simply unthinkable, and they all knew it, especially Vanellope. So she didn't complain again as the four of them ran as fast as they could towards the castle, where the final showdown would take place. Their minds whizzed as fast as their feet as they tried to figure out how to make Lemona listen to them. That would be all it would take for her to realize how wrong she was.

Unfortunately, it sounded easier than it would be.

Please remember to review and let me know what you think!


	12. Chapter 12

Thanks for the wonderful responses to my eleventh chapter! Because I appreciate and love my readers so much, here's another chapter that's sure to make you squeal. (Hopefully. :D) I'm almost afraid to say it, but I think this story is almost done! I only need a couple more chapters! Oh dear...Maybe I'll think up a sequel...What would you guys think about that?

Anyway, I hope you read and review and enjoy this chapter! And remember, I don't own Wreck It Ralph and the characters, only Lemona Lime.

Chapter 12

"How can you not know the password to get in here?"

The only other time Lemona had seen Turbo glare was when she had woken him up by throwing fudge balls at his face. The thing that made this time different was that the first time, when he'd seen that it was her, the glare had disappeared. Now, it didn't look like he had any intent in giving her a smile. They had been working at the door for a good fifteen minutes, maybe even more. Luckily, nobody had been brave enough to come close and do anything about it. The instant they had seen Turbo, they had headed for the hills, and for good reason. The glare on his face right now was enough to even make Lemona a little startled. But it was going to take more than an unpleasant frown to make her apologize or wince away from him. Instead, she was giving a sour attitude right back at him.

"Well _excuse me _for not knowing that I was going to need it!" she snapped back at the grumpy racer, waiting for him to punch in another code. "I thought the original plan was for me to race Vanellope, win, kick her sorry behind out of the game, and then _rule_ the game! I didn't know we'd be changing and deleting codes!"

"If we don't get in here and delete the little glitch, there's no way she'll stay out of the way long enough for us to gain absolute power," Turbo grumbled, punching the buttons in front of him furiously. He had been doing this for so long that he wouldn't have been surprised if he was punching in the same incorrect codes over and over again. He knew he was close; he could feel it in his coding. It sounded ridiculous, but being so close to the source of his existence, it was almost as though the wires and boxes were calling to him, beckoning him closer. But he couldn't get closer without the wretched password!

Turbo could feel himself getting to the point of explosion. He felt irate, and it was showing; the red he was beginning to see was a result of furious glitches that were causing him to change from his King Candy avatar to his original Turbo avatar. Ripping his gaze away from the buttons in front of him and towards Lemona, he noticed through the red haze that there was now apprehension combined with her annoyance on her face. Suddenly he remembered that she was scared of his second form and willed himself to calm down. He needed Lemona to stay on his side. If her loyalty and trust wavered, she could very well turn against him, and then everything he'd worked so hard to get from her would be gone along with his future plans. Besides, he was looking forward to ruling the kingdom with Lemona as his princess. She reminded him of himself at a younger age.

Once he was no longer seeing red and was back in his King Candy form, he grabbed Lemona's soft hand and held it in both of his. "A thousand apologies, my sour lemon bonbon. I'm just getting a little…anxious."

"Apparently," the child grumbled under her breath, but try as she may, she just couldn't stop the look on her face from softening. "I'm sorry too. I should have tried to get the code password from Vanellope just in case our plans changed. Have you tried the old password backwards yet?"

Turbo opened his mouth to respond, but before he could speak, another voice interrupted him hollering, "Hold it right there!"

Lemona jumped, once again startled by who was behind her. Whirling around, she saw the accursed four characters that she was growing to truly hate. Vanellope was in her cart, the other three standing right behind her, at the ready. "Stay back," Lemona warned, jamming her hands in her pockets with the hope that she would have a little bit of black liquorice left, just in case one of them happened to touch her. Being empty handed and getting touched would be all it would take for their plan to end, and she was not about to let that happen. Luckily, there were still a couple of small pieces, so she passed a couple of them to Turbo just in case.

"We're not going to let you harm Vanellope or this game," Felix cried out in as brave a voice he could muster up. He was not as scared as he had been the first time he'd gone game-jumping, but their situation was a little intimidating for him. After all, in his game, the only things he had to worry about were ducks and bricks!

After he had spoken, Vanellope immediately followed suit, her words aimed directly at the sour girl. "Please Lemona, listen to us! You don't have to do this. We found your purpose in the game!"

"I already have a purpose," Lemona sneered, pointing at the code room. "As soon as we get this door open and fiddle with the coding, I'll be one of the rulers of Sugar Rush."

Vanellope shook her head desperately, almost pleading with her. "No, I mean we found your true purpose! When you were programmed, the adults made you a builder. You gather candy and make cart pieces with it! You're able to race, but it's not the most important thing you do. We've seen your workshop! It's incredible!"

Lemona snorted in response, flipping her cropped hair snottily, which caused the hood on her cloak to fall off of her head. "Why would I want to be a builder when I could be a princess?"

"Because that's what you were programmed to do," Vanellope's response was not what Lemona was expecting in the least. Even though she knew that she shouldn't be listening, she couldn't stop her ears from perking up slightly in interest, though she kept the curiousity hidden with a snort.

"You're never going to be fully satisfied unless you're doing what you were programmed to do," Vanellope continued, cautiously approaching Lemona, but making sure not to get too close; she didn't want a repeat of what had happened earlier. Her hazel eyes were soulful, almost as though knew what she was talking about. This was further confirmed when she next spoke. "I should know," she admitted, taking that moment to shoot daggers at Turbo, who was watching the back and forth banter in amusement. "I lived for many years without being allowed to race because _somebody_ tried to delete my code, took my position as ruler, and then went around telling everybody that I was worthless and no good just because I was a glitch. He practically ruined my life by making it illegal for me to race, and I don't want that to happen to you!"

"I did absolutely nothing of the sort!" Now Turbo was getting into the discussion, shooting a desperate glance at Lemona. "Lemona, my sweet little cupcake, she's just lying to get you to think I'm the bad guy! Remember, she's the one who doesn't like other glitches and will do anything to keep other people from winning!"

"Don't listen to him anymore Lemona!" Making her way a few steps closer to the blonde glitch, Vanellope continued to plead, hoping that she could make her see the truth. "He's been lying to you the entire time, and the more time you spend with him, the more he'll corrupt your code! Don't you realize what he's doing to you? This is not what you're supposed to be like! What happened to the Lemona I knew only days ago?"

"That Lemona was weak," hissed Lemona, taking a couple of steps back so that the distance between her and Vanellope remained the same. The others weren't doing anything but watching, so she found herself not even bothering to look at them. She knew that Ralph would be eager to do some wrecking, Felix would be prepared to fix anything that needed to be fixed, and Calhoun would gladly shoot whatever she wanted to. But she also knew that they wouldn't want to do anything that could potentially harm her or Vanellope.

She continued to speak, keeping her entire attention focussed on Vanellope and Turbo, the only two people that really seemed to matter in this battle. "I'm not weak anymore. Now, because I'm sour, I can do whatever I want! I'm braver, and most importantly, I'm stronger!"

"You don't need to be sour to be brave and strong," Vanellope cried out. She now understood that she wasn't going to be able to get closer to Lemona, but apparently she needed some way to move to keep herself somewhat calm, so now she was wringing her hands. Salty tears were threatening to seep out of her eyes, but she was doing a very good job keeping them there as she spoke. Unfortunately, her anxiety and fear was shown by the increasing pitch her voice was acquiring. What had started out as a calm and pleading voice was now high pitched and even more desperate sounding. "Lemona, the reason you're a glitch is because your code was strong enough to hold on when the programmers decided to delete you! _You_ were strong enough, and _you_ were brave enough! I don't know any other video game characters who have had the courage to be able to try to do that, let alone succeed! It's no cake walk, but _you _did it, and _you _were able to survive in the Black Liquorice Forest, all the while trying to get used to your glitches by yourself! You don't need to be sour to be brave and strong and do whatever you want! You just need to be yourself! And this is not who you are!"

By the time Vanellope had finished speaking, Turbo was hollering again, trying to get Lemona to ignore her again. This was all too much for Lemona to take in so quickly; everything that she had believed was now being questioned, and the yelling, the yelling, the yelling simply wouldn't stop. Back and forth it travelled, the arguments clashing in her brain and only confusing her, giving her a headache, and making her feel dizzy. She wanted to believe Turbo, she truly did. She wanted to believe that Vanellope was a lying brat again. But everything that Vanellope was saying was making her remember every kind word and gesture Vanellope had pointed her direction. It was getting impossible for Lemona to piece together who was acting and who was telling the truth, and the stress was turning her face ghost white and her chest was aching. She was so desperate to block everything out that she was unable to stop her body from glitching over and over again. As it transformed from normal to blue static and numbers repeatedly, she grabbed her head so tightly that it looked as though she was attempting to squeeze it right off of her body. She shook it back and forth viciously, her eyes clenched so tight that wrinkles and creases were forming on her face. "Shut up, shut up, _SHUT UP!_" she screamed, so distraught that she wasn't even trying to use her lemon and lime themed sayings. She didn't even notice how heavily her body was beginning to sweat. The only thing she could notice was how her entire body was aching, and she was in so much distress that there was nothing she was able to do to stop it.

And then suddenly she was on the floor, gasping and finding that she couldn't catch her breath no matter how hard she tried. Her heart was pounding so hard that she felt as if it was going to burst right out of her body, and a horrific scream much like the ones she'd let out when she'd fell out of the tree emitted from her.

"Lemona!" Instantly everybody was around her, watching as she struggled to catch her breath. At first nobody was willing to touch her, as she was still glitching quite rapidly, but finally Calhoun came forward, grabbing her wrist to take her pulse. Feeling the uneven beats, she turned to her companions, the look on her face deadly serious. "She's having a heart attack. Where's the closest hospital?"

"A couple of doors down from here from Game Central Station," replied Vanellope, the panic on her face just as clear as on everybody else' face. "But Lemona's a glitch! She can't leave Sugar Rush!"

"Then I'm going to have to treat her here," Calhoun turned back to Lemona's anguished body, trying to determine what to do. "I've got a bit of nitro-glycerine and morphine somewhere in this suit, but she needs more than that. We could try Fix-It's hammer, but it'll scar her again, and I'm not even sure if it'll reach her heart. I think the best way to help her will be to get that almond rocca off of her code. It's most likely built on such a thick layer that it's getting impossible for things to travel from the wires to her code box and vice versa."

Instantly Vanellope was shoving her way past Turbo and jamming the right password for the code room door into the security system. As soon as the last correct button was pressed the door slid open with a whoosh, and Vanellope turned towards the others, not even bothering to tie the liquorice around her waist. "I can open the door, but we still don't know how to get that almond rocca off of her coding! That was the one thing we didn't have any ideas about."

"No," Ralph no longer had his eyes on Lemona or the president. He had his eyes on somebody else. "But we know somebody who does."

Suddenly he lunged and grabbed the person he'd been glaring at, wrapping his colossal hands around his body and gripping tight enough to cause the person to cry out in pain, but not hard enough to kill.

Turbo squirmed and pulled, looking almost like a guy trying to pull himself out of a manhole. "Hey, what do you think you're doing? Let me go!"

The last time Ralph had spoken so seriously had been when he'd destroyed Vanellope's racing cart. "Listen you no good, dirty, rotten worm; you are going to go in there, and fix Lemona's code or so help me, I will do worse than wreck you."

Turbo was no longer trying to escape; instead he fixed Ralph with a vicious look of absolute contempt. "No way! When I get inside that code room, I plan on getting rid of Vanellope for good and making myself the king again! And there's nothing you can do to—GACK!" Ralph's grip had tightened, and his entire face had darkened furiously.

"We are all coming with you, and you _will_ fix Lemona's coding. If we see any funny business at all, I'll allow Sergeant Calhoun to fire her gun at you. And she _never_ misses." As if to confirm this, Calhoun pulled out her machine gun and loaded it threateningly.

Now gulping, Turbo nodded in understanding. Satisfied, Ralph dove head-first into the code room, Vanellope and Calhoun right behind him. Felix stayed behind with Lemona. She had received some of the nitro-glycerine from Calhoun before she'd entered the code room, but it didn't seem to be helping at all. Felix clenched a walkie-talkie in his hand so that they could all keep in contact in case anything went wrong, but his entire focus was directed on the sick child, who was still glitching and shaking, but now unconscious. He couldn't believe she was going through so much pain all over again and that there was nothing he could do to help. He didn't even want to touch her.

Meanwhile, inside the code room, Ralph and the others had easily found Lemona's coding. Sure enough, the almond rocca coating had gotten thicker, even in the short amount of time since they'd last seen it. Ralph released Turbo, poised and ready to strike in case he tried to make a run for it. "Now fix her," he demanded.

But now Turbo was getting cheeky again. He picked up a strand of Lemona's coding and held it in front of him so that if Ralph or Calhoun tried to get to him, they'd damage the code as well. "And what if I don't?" he taunted, waving it in front of them all provokingly.

Before anybody had answered, Vanellope had glitched her way right in front of him, the move so sudden that it caused him to jump and release the coding again. In that amount of time, Vanellope had grabbed ahold of his jacket and was shouting in his face furiously, tears from a number of different emotions streaming down her face. "You monster," she managed to choke out, every single part of her revealing how much she truly hated Turbo. "You've been using her this entire time, haven't you? You never truly cared about her, all of those nicknames and kind actions towards her were just ploys to convince her to help you. Now she trusts you; you mean everything to her, and you're not even going to help her in her time of need? You're just going to let her die? That is so _sick_! Well I am _NOT_ going to let that happen to her. Not on _my_ watch. So when I let go of you you'd better get to work, you Jerk Face, or I'm gonna let Ralph wreck you, then I'm gonna let Calhoun shoot you up, and then I'm either gonna let you rot in the fungeon for the rest of your life, or I'm gonna throw you in a taffy pool and leave you to drown."

By the time Vanellope had released Turbo and glitched back to her friends, everybody was staring at her with mouths agape and eyes wide. Vanellope faced her friends with what little of a smile she could muster, and then whipped her head around to face Turbo. "Well? What are you waiting for, Bubble Gum Butt?"

At the sound of her voice, Turbo instantly grabbed a wire. He started by tapping, but eventually he was performing a number of different actions to the wires and code box. Nobody had any idea what he was really doing, but they all hoped that their threats had made it so that he wouldn't even consider doing anything bad to Lemona's code. Time passed by excruciatingly slow, and every second Vanellope, Ralph, and Calhoun feared that they would be one second too late. The walkie-talkies never got used; nobody wanted to be the bearer of bad news or receive it from Felix's side of the door.

Finally, just when nobody was willing to take it anymore, Turbo tapped the code box one final time and there was an earth-shattering crack. Calhoun instantly reacted by holding up her gun, and Vanellope leaped up into Ralph's arms, where he held her secure. All watched as one small crack in the almond rocca led to a number of cracks coming out from each other. The sound almost reminded Vanellope of popcorn, but for Ralph, it was just like the sound of the breaking Mentos as he had pounded on the top of Diet Cola Mountain, praying that he could create the beacon that would save Vanellope's game.

Finally the almond rocca stopped cracking and there was a loud explosion as the shards flew in multiple directions, causing everybody to turn away in the hopes of protecting themselves. When the dust had finally cleared and no more was falling, they all turned back to see Lemona's code. While it no longer was covered in almond rocca, it was not strong like the rest of the games coding. Ralph shot a glare at Turbo, who held up his hands in defense. "That's the best I could do, honestly! I could get rid of the sugary stuff, but the rest of the coding that would have been there to make it like everything else vanished when the programmers tried to delete her. There's no way to get it back. But she should be back to normal now."

Hoping and praying, Ralph grabbed the walkie-talkie from Calhoun and shouted urgently in it. "Felix? How is Lemona?"

For a moment there was nothing but static, and Ralph feared that they would get no response. But then there was the sound of a button being pressed, and Felix's voice rang clear and true from the other side.

"She's awake, Brother."

Well? Is it any good? Please let me know!


	13. Chapter 13

Hey guys! I hope this chapter is long enough and grand enough for you. I listened to many different songs and read a lot of lyrics to get the inspiration for this chapter. I'm still eternally grateful to all of my wonderful reviewers; you guys have never let me down! Thank you!

Once again, I don't own Wreck It Ralph or the characters, just Lemona Lime.

Chapter 13

Vanellope's heart was in her throat by the time she and the others made it out of the code room. She hadn't been sure what to expect when she saw Lemona, but when she finally did, relief washed over her like a wave in the ocean. Turbo really had been right about Lemona being back to normal. The child's beautiful blonde hair had somehow sprouted back to its original floor length, and to Vanellope's delight, the scar on her neck, which Calhoun had claimed would never go away, had done the very opposite. There was absolutely no indication that it had ever existed. She looked just as she had the first time they'd met in the forest. The only way you could tell that anything had happened to her was by listening to her breathing. She was no longer gasping, trying desperately to get air into her respiratory system, but it was a little shaky. Glitches no longer racked her body, though her legs seemed to be moving in a way that made it look as though she was walking, even though she was lying on her back.

As Vanellope approached, she managed to croak out a couple of words. "Hey, Lemon Breath. What are you doing?"

Incomprehensible syllables and sounds managed to choke their way out of Lemona's mouth as she continued to try to catch her breath. Felix turned to explain to Vanellope. "She needs a piece of black liquorice. Calhoun touched her when she was checking her pulse, remember?"

Shuddering inwardly as she recalled the incident, Vanellope checked her pockets, only to find them bare. She turned to Turbo, who was once again being gripped by Ralph to make sure he didn't go anywhere. "Come on, cough it up Racer Boy. I saw her give you some."

Grudgingly, Turbo passed over a piece of the bitter candy, which Vanellope proceeded to break in two and give to Lemona and Calhoun. Once she had swallowed and gained control of herself again, Lemona slowly eased herself up into a sitting position, looking extremely tired and disoriented. "Ouch. Sour lemonade, I've got a headache," she moaned to herself, looking down at the ground. Slowly her head lifted up until she noticed the crowd of people surrounding her. "What's going on?"

"You and Turbo were trying to get into the code room to destroy my code," Vanellope carefully responded. She was nervous about telling Lemona this after her horrific ordeal, but she had to tell the truth, and there really was no way to sugar coat it.

"What?" Lemona ran her fingers through the hair on the top of her head and kept them there, trying to piece everything together. "No, that can't be right. I told him I wasn't going to hurt you. I just wanted to beat you in a race. He said I wouldn't have to hurt you!"

"The way he taught you to hold back glitches caused your code to get corrupted every time you did it," explained Vanellope. Her voice was quite hushed, but Lemona heard every word loud and clear. "After a while, you were so angry and bent on revenge that you were willing to do anything."

Lemona put down her hand and went from looking to Lemona to Turbo, who shifted uncomfortably when he saw the look of hurt in her wide emerald orbs. Suddenly she felt something squirming in one of the uttermost dark spots in her body. It was her past anger, bitterness, and sourness. The feeling of it inside of her made her want to throw up; there was no way she could imagine unleashing all of it. "Turbo, is this true?" she whispered, almost too appalled to get the words out.

After a moment of silence, Turbo nodded once and spoke the one word Lemona didn't want to hear. "Yes."

Hearing this made Lemona recall bits and pieces of the argument between Vanellope and Turbo that had occurred only moments ago. "Did Vanellope even do any of the things you said she did?" she choked out, almost not wanting to hear the answer. There was now a good chance that Vanellope hadn't deserved the horrible things Lemona had planned for her or the feelings that were now crawling around inside of her, trying their best to escape. But Lemona would not let a single one out until she got her answer. The idea of unleashing them on someone undeserving was making her feel even sicker.

More time passed before Turbo spoke again, his head lowered. "No."

Hearing this, Lemona choked out a sob, not even bothering to cover her mouth with her hand. So Vanellope had been right all along. She had never tried to harm Lemona. She had meant every word spoken, every gesture had been heartfelt. And as a reward, Lemona had listened to a liar who planned on using her to delete Vanellope.

"Let him go, Ralph." Lemona surprised everybody, including herself with her words, but she felt as though she needed Turbo right in front of him when she spoke next. Ralph looked as though he wanted to object, but Vanellope gave him a whack in the shin and a look that told him that he'd better listen, or else. Besides, it wasn't as though they weren't right there to keep an eye on the little traitor. That was the only word Lemona could think of to describe him at the moment. This betrayal was making her rethink everything she had ever done for him.

"So let me guess," she found herself whispering once Turbo had slowly walked towards her sitting body. Her muscles all seemed weak, and she found herself unable to move at all. "You were planning on using me to delete Vanellope's code, and then, once that was complete, you were going to delete me too?"

"No!" Turbo burst out, his mud coloured eyes, which had once looked like the sweetest chocolate to the innocent little girl, sparkled with what looked like sadness. However, Lemona was not ready to believe that he was truly sad. Instead, she just listened to him with an emotionless expression on her face. "I mean, that was the original plan. But then you started learning, and I saw how happy you were every time I helped you gain control of yourself. And seeing how happy you were when you finally figured out how to drive reminded me of myself at a younger age. I was _excited_ about the idea of ruling with you Lemona. Everything we did together made you stronger."

"No," though Lemona was still heartbroken at the betrayal, her voice came off cold and hard as she spoke, "everything we did together made me weaker, because the more time we spent together, the more I had to rely on _you_. Through everything, I depended on your encouragement and your_ stupid_ nicknames, when really I should have stayed away from you. I knew how to take care of myself, and being around you made me forget all of it. And you know what makes this worse? I actually cared about you, and I thought you cared about me too. You were the one person I actually listened to and believed in. I thought we were doing what was right."

"Lemona, sweetie," the lisp in Turbo's speech came out even more than it usually did as he bent down and reached for one of her hands to clasp, but she finally gathered enough strength to back away from him. She kept her hands behind her back, denying him access to them. "Don't touch me," she ordered, trying to keep her voice steady and emotionless. Biting her lip, she willed the tears not to fall, but they didn't listen, streaming down her face and onto her cloak, which now suddenly felt too tight as she glared at Turbo.

Finally Ralph had had enough. "Okay, that's it," he growled, grabbing Turbo by the back of his purple jacket and dragging him down the hallway. "We're putting you in the fungeon again, and this time, nobody's gonna let you out."

"No, wait!" Fighting to break free, Turbo called out to Lemona. "Lemona, please! Don't think that I didn't mean everything I said to you! Be the little sour lemon cake I care about again! You'll never be free if you don't!"

For the first time when Lemona closed her eyes she wished she couldn't see everything clearly. She wanted to see the pitch black, not Turbo being dragged away while begging to her. She knew exactly what his words meant. If she didn't return to the way she had been, she would never be able to hold back her glitches. Anybody that touched her would be able to control and take advantage of her. She wouldn't be able to get into a cart without hurting herself. But the very idea of reverting to the evil, corrupted version of herself was terrifying. It was very doable; she could feel all the bad feelings trying to crawl out of her like her glitches. But she didn't want to hurt Vanellope again. Not after she had fought so hard to return Lemona to normal.

Vanellope was watching too as Ralph left with Turbo. Felix and Calhoun were right with him, just in case Turbo managed to cause trouble, and soon it was just the two girls alone in the hallway. Turning towards Lemona, she didn't even try to smile at the conflicted girl. "You know, I can't believe that I'm saying this, but I think he's telling the truth," she finally spoke, and her tone was much more serious than it should have been for such a young child. "He really does care about that sour version of you."

Lemona didn't respond, so Vanellope continued. "You can go back if you want."

Those unexpected words made Lemona jolt her head up, a confused frown clear on her face. A glitch broke through her, but she ignored the pain in her gut, only feeling shock. "Huh?"

"I know you care about him too," Vanellope explained. "So if you want to be sour again, I'll respect your wishes. Maybe I'm wrong and that'll be satisfying enough for you. But if it's not, you can stay the way you were programmed and work in your workshop. Maybe you'll even be able to try harnessing your sweetness to allow you to race and hold back glitches. But whether you're sweet or sour, I'll always consider you one of my best friends."

Hearing that made Lemona cry even harder, and before she had even thought about the consequences, she was throwing her arms around Vanellope and sobbing into her hoodie. Even as electricity emitted from her body and she glitched and caused Vanellope to do the same, neither girl let go. Lemona didn't believe she deserved such kindness, and to make matters worse, that made it even more difficult for her to figure out what she wanted to do. She had never felt so much emotional pain before in her life, and it was just as bad as the physical pain she'd gone through, possibly even worse. Trying to hold back her tears again, she ended up choking and gasping for breath again. Vanellope picked her up so that she was standing on her own two feet, took a step back, and placed her hands on Lemona's shoulders. Her touch was much warmer than Turbo's, but just as comforting. Cracking a gentle smile, Vanellope watched as Lemona was forced to perform the same actions. "Hey, take it easy Water-Works. You're gonna have everybody thinking you're as fragile as a double-striped candy cane. I know this is tough, but you just gotta be tougher. You're a strong kid. You'll figure out what's right for you."

Even though she was now frozen, her body awaiting a movement from Vanellope, tears were still falling from Lemona's eyes. If she were to stay the way she was programmed, her life would indeed be sweet, Vanellope's dedication to her was all the proof she needed of that. If she turned sour again, she risked causing problems, but Vanellope would still support her, and she'd have Turbo's affection again.

_"Wait,"_ A little voice in her head suddenly appeared, startling her, _"are you saying you'd rather receive love from a person who only likes you if you're bad? Did your brain shrink to the size of a peanut? Vanellope and her friends will accept you for who you are, no matter what. Isn't that better than changing who you are programmed to be just to please Turbo? If he only likes a certain part of you, he obviously doesn't really like you. Gah-doi! Besides, why would you want to be a bad guy again? It only caused you trouble the first time! If I were you, which I am, I'd stay sweet and do what you were programmed to do chickie!"_ Then, just as quickly as the voice had come, it was gone, replaced by the sound of Vanellope calling out, "Hello? Earth to Lemona?"

Snapping herself out of her daze, Lemona found herself waving her hand in front of Vanellope's face just as Vanellope was doing to her. If she hadn't been stuck with Vanellope in control of her actions, she would have given her a sheepish grin as she spoke through gritted teeth. "Sorry. I was thinking. Do you think…Do you think you could show me my workshop?"

"Eep!" Vanellope gasped, covering her mouth with her pink hands as her eyes widened in hope. "Does this mean…"

If Lemona could have nodded, she would have. "Yep. Sweet Lemona is here to stay."

Had anybody else been around, they would have thought that an explosion had been set off. Without any warning at all, Vanellope's face lit up and she let out the loudest cry of "YIPEE!" that Lemona had ever heard in her life. Drunk with ecstasy, she began leaping up and down, repeating herself over and over and pumping her fists in the air energetically. Of course, Lemona had to do it too, though she admitted to herself later that even if she hadn't been controlled by Vanellope, she probably still would have done it. After a couple of wonderful minutes spent celebrating, Vanellope grabbed Lemona's hand, pulling her eagerly. "Come on! As President of this game, I declare that we gather everybody together and have another banquet to celebrate! This game is about to get even better!"

As both girls giggled and started skipping down the hallway, Lemona closed her eyes. She was almost in a state of absolute bliss, but there was still one thing wrong. She could still feel her dark, ugly feelings clawing at her insides. Hoping Vanellope wouldn't notice, Lemona silently gathered up all of those horrid feelings for what she hoped would be the very last time. She felt them building up inside of her, and she concentrated on pulling them all together, almost like making a ball out of soft caramel. It was just like harnessing them to hold back a glitch, though this time she had a very different purpose in mind for them. Once they had been pulled in with as much effort as she could put in, praying that her plan would work, Lemona quickly released it all again. The sudden release of tension caused her to glitch, and the electricity inside of her crackled, striking every dark feeling and sending them all so deep inside of her that they could no longer be felt. Hopefully, they would never come back, no matter what happened.

Satisfied, Lemona opened her eyes again. Vanellope turned her head and smiled at her. Lemona felt herself copying her friend, and for once in her life, she didn't mind that she wasn't in control of her actions. As she and Vanellope continued to skip down the hallway together, she realized that she had never before felt so strong.

Don't start crying, this story isn't done yet! I still have one more chapter to write before the dreaded end. A lot of you have said that you would like a sequel. It is definitely being considered, but I need a plot first. If any of you fans of mine have any ideas at all that you would like to share, let me know in your reviews! I know I keep saying this, but thank you so much you guys. I really do appreciate all the reviews and feedback I get. Please keep it up!

Until next time! Have a great day!


	14. Chapter 14

_**Here it is, I'm sorry to say. The final chapter. I hope it doesn't end too abruptly for you guys; I tried my best. Once again, thank you to all my dedicated reviewers. I'd also like to thank everybody who favorited or followed this story. I really hope you guys enjoyed it. And yes, I am thinking of writing a sequel, though I'm not sure when I'll start it. I need to think up a plot first, and right now I have absolutely no ideas. I will accept any ideas you guys decide to put in your reviews.**_

_**Please let me know what you think about this chapter! Even if you've never left a review on this story before, I would love it if you could. And maybe in your review you could tell me how you happened to find my story and why you decided to start reading it. Did you read the description and just decide to give it a shot? Or did you find it in the Favourites of one of your other favourite authors? This is something that's kinda been on my mind lately. I can't wait to read what you have to say!**_

_**I don't own Wreck It Ralph or the characters, just my OC Lemona Lime. (Wow, I can't believe that's the last time I'll be writing that in this story. Crazy!)**_

Chapter 14

Weeks later, Lemona had adjusted to her new life in the game. Though she found herself unable to hold back her glitches, she had quickly gotten used to her new job in the supposed to be deleted mini games. Luckily, none of the gamers that came to play had any idea that the games weren't supposed to be there; they just enjoyed playing them. As a result, Sugar Rush became a much more popular game, even more so than Fix-It-Felix Jr.

Vanellope couldn't remember a time they had been more popular, which was a good thing, because being busy made the other racers quickly forget their anger and poor attitudes towards Lemona. There had been a few issues on the day of the banquet, but once Lemona had proved that she was no longer sour, tensions had started to slowly die down. Now the racers seemed quite fond of her, often coming once the arcade was closed to request cart pieces made with specific types of candy.

Gathering and building really were what Lemona was programmed to do; she wielded a hammer even better than Felix did. Her days were spent out in the different lands collecting what she wanted, while her nights were spent building. Any spare time she had in between was dedicated to racing.

Since the day Lemona had returned to normal, she had not missed a Random Roster Race. She had wanted to take any opportunity she could to get used to racing again. At first she hadn't even been able to enter a cart without painfully glitching like the very first time she had tried to drive. But gradually she had improved, and now she was actually a decent racer. She wasn't as good as she had been when she'd been working with Turbo, and as a result, she was never able to make it into the top nine that would be on the game's roster the next day when the arcade opened. However, she knew what to do to ensure that she wasn't always stuck in last place, though sometimes things went wrong, as things tend to do from time to time.

Last night had been different though. By some miracle, Lemona had been able to pull ahead of Jubileena Bing-Bing at the last moment, crossing the finish line in ninth place and confirming herself a spot for the first time. She hadn't even realized it until Vanellope tore over to her excitedly, engulfing her in a hug and squealing the good news. Even then, she hadn't believed her until she'd looked up at the scoreboard and saw her name in the ninth place spot.

Now Lemona was standing in her very own square, staring out past the console's screen, where a bunch of kids were standing around watching as a girl with square glasses and short blonde hair navigated the steering wheel, trying to decide which of the lucky nine she would use to drive her way to victory. Lemona sucked in a nervous breath as she saw the squares around the other Sugar Rush characters light up one at a time. Would her square do the same? Or would she be ignored, considered inferior to the others, whom had been up on the roster numerous times before? Hoping the kids wouldn't notice, she quickly shot a glance at her yellow and green racing outfit, hoping that she looked presentable. She had decided to ditch her black cloak, as she had felt it didn't really go with her citrus themed personality and look.

"Hey, look Moppet," one of the other children pointed to the screen, and Lemona felt her face pale as she realized he was pointing directly at her. "That's the girl in the new mini-games!"

Moppet Girl's gaze followed her friend's finger. "Oh yeah," she said. The look on her face made Lemona feel as though she was being inspected inside and out. "Mr. Litwak must have found some way to make her a playable character!"

Suddenly Lemona's bright yellow box with green trimming was all aglow, and she felt herself being pushed by an invisible force. It was not powerful enough to make her fall down; instead her body stiffened and she felt electricity flying from her body. "Oh no," were the only two words in her brain as she felt herself quickly change into blue pixels. Now she wished she had rethought not wearing her cloak. She lost her vision momentarily, but when she got it back, she saw all of the kids staring at her quizzically. "Huh? What just happened?" One of the other kids asked.

Moppet Girl scratched her head. "I'm not sure. I hope the game's not busted. It's one of my favourites."

"Now I've done it," Lemona's mind was running at a million miles per minute as she stood frozen in place. Even though she couldn't see them, she knew that everybody else was in the same position, wanting to show off their panic, but knowing that they had to stick to their sweet and happy personas. Her glitches had always been something that she'd been wary about, knowing that having one at the wrong moment would cause problems. But they'd been so good before this, only occurring when the gamers weren't playing her mini games or when the arcade was closed. Now on her very first day of actual racing, she was probably about to put the game out of commission.

As she stood feeling helpless, wondering what she could do to fix the problem that was quickly arising, Moppet Girl fiddled with the control, moving the invisible pointer off of Lemona and her box and to the one above. Still under the control of the pointer's touch with no black liquorice to devour, Lemona let out a silent gasp as her arms flew up into the air and she involuntarily jumped.

"Huh?" Noticing the movement, Moppet Girl pulled down, forcing Lemona to bend over as though she was touching her toes. "What's going on?" Trying to figure out what was going on, she continued to move her controls around, and Lemona was forced to move in each direction each time. However, because the thing that had touched her was not alive, she found that even though she was forced to move up and down and from side to side, she could control her facial expressions, and even move her arms and legs a little bit. This had been something she'd discovered once she'd started playing in her mini games and completely forgotten about until now. Before she knew it, an idea was bubbling inside of her head.

Praying that it would work, Lemona started wiggling her fingers and toes and as she moved, she tried to make each movement look as fluent and graceful as she could. Soon it had become a sort of dance, and she found herself grinning vividly, hoping the Moppet Girl wouldn't find this unusual.

Sure enough, the Moppet Girl cracked a grin too as she spoke to her friends. "Oh, I get it! It's the special effects in the game! It's the game's way of trying to make me choose her as my avatar. You know, like how when that Vanellope chick gets ignored, she cries and when she gets chosen, she jumps around with that goofy smile on her face? That's pretty clever."

Eight little gushes of wind could then be heard by Lemona as the other racers on the roster unleashed their bound up breaths. That had been a close call; that was obvious enough. It had been good that she'd been able to use her quick thinking to fix the problem, but Lemona knew as the Moppet Girl clicked her box and confirmed her to be the chosen avatar that she would have to be extra careful. The stress and worry were definitely two emotions she hadn't wanted to feel the first time she got chosen as an avatar, but they bubbled up anyway.

As the screen changed and went to the racetrack, Lemona took the few seconds she had without being seen to take a couple of deep breaths. "Here I go," she whispered to herself, trying to sound reassuring. "This is it. The moment I've been waiting for. You can do it Lemona. Just don't glitch. Whatever you do, DO NOT GLITCH. Otherwise, you'll be the cause of the game going out of order and making thousands of people who live here homeless." As soon as the words had come out of her mouth, she heard herself give a snort. Yeah, that was reassuring. She tried to think of something that would counteract the pressure she hadn't meant to give herself, but before she had time to, the scene had finished changing, and it was time to start racing. As the countdown began and the engines began to rev up, Lemona leaned as far forward as possible in her seat, gripping the steering wheel as though it was the very thing keeping her alive. Even though she knew there was no hope of her actually winning the race, she felt her eyes narrow in determination the way they did during every race.

3. 2. 1. GO! As soon as the bright green letters appeared on the screen and the little light that hovered above the racers changed to the same color, Lemona let out a cry of "Woohoo!" as she felt her foot plummet onto the accelerator. With her engine roaring and exhaust pouring out of her cart's pipes, she started to fly, kicking up brown sugar dust. Expertly twisting her steering wheel left and right she managed to manoeuvre her cart, putting her in fifth place as she entered the Gumball Gorge.

The first time she had ever gone racing on the main track, Lemona had not known what to expect, and as a result, when she'd entered the ravine she'd been the first to get beamed by a gigantic gumball. Now however, she was used to dodging the rolling confectionery, so when she saw a bright blue ball of destruction headed her way, swerving her way around it was easy. However, she and the Moppet Girl hadn't counted on another ball to roll down the ravine ahead of her and into her cart's path. With a squeak, Lemona felt her body jerk uncontrollably to the right. Unfortunately, they hadn't moved quickly enough, and Lemona's cart got clipped, causing it to spin out of control. Luckily, the Moppet Girl knew not to stomp on the brakes, so Lemona allowed her cart to slow down on its own until finally it stopped on one side of the track.

Needing a few seconds to recuperate, Lemona watched as Snowanna Rainbeau passed her. Snowanna was an expert at driving in the Gumball Gorge; it was almost as she could communicate with the balls and know their every move. Which is why Lemona had to gasp when a purple gumball collided head-on into her bowl-shaped cart. However, she had no time to think about it, as the Moppet Girl had stomped on the game console's accelerator again, forcing her to move forward, leaving the groovy chick in the dust.

Lemona exited the gorge with no other incidents, still in fifth as she made her way to her favourite part of the game: the cake themed ramp and jump. Spinning around and around as she climbed the ramp, she passed Candlehead and was soon neck and neck with Rancis and Taffyta. Her joy was strong enough to turn her head and make her blow a raspberry in their direction, which made Taffyta sniff. Chuckling, Lemona turned her head back to the track ahead. They were just entering the tunnel which led to the jump, and her heart started to climb in her chest as she got closer and closer. Finally her cart went over and up, sailing in the sky momentarily. Lemona loved the thrill of no longer being on the ground; it was almost like she was flying. And then, just as quickly as it had started it was over, and her cart crashed back to earth. But where were Rancis and Taffyta?

Turning her head, she saw that Taffyta was now behind her, getting further and further away, and Rancis was no longer in sight. "He must not have made the jump," she thought, only confusing herself further. This race just kept on getting weirder and weirder. But once again, she couldn't think about it; the most difficult part of the entire race was approaching, which meant she had to put all of her concentration into it.

Entering the winter themed section of road, a chilly wind hit her face with all the force of a thousand punches, reddening it and causing her eyes to water profusesly. Forced to slow down a little so that she wouldn't lose control on the icy road, she blinked furiously, trying to bring back her visibility. It wasn't easy in the terrain, but eventually her programming kicked in and she was able to see clearly, though she was more than grateful when she finally made it out of the snow and onto the final section of road.

The finish line was straight ahead, a dot in the horizon, and now that she could see again, Lemona could see Vanellope's cart in front of her. Once again pushing on the gas pedal with all she had, Lemona managed to catch up with her. Noticing her, Vanellope got a surprised look on her face, but quickly erased it as she pressed forward, staying just a bit ahead of Lemona. Now it was even more apparent to Lemona that she was not going to win. No matter what she did, Vanellope would still win. All it would take was a simple glitch and she'd cross the finish line first, like she always did. But surprisingly, Vanellope didn't do it, and as a result, the carts switched places more than once. Who was in front? It was Vanellope. It was Lemona. It was Vanellope. It was Lemona again! Now the finish line was only seconds away, and Lemona turned her head towards Vanellope, waiting expectantly for her to suddenly disappear and reappear in front of her. But it never happened, and Lemona flew across the finish line in first place.

"Huh?" Confusion now clouding all of her other thoughts, Lemona watched as her cart stopped and she was lifted out of it and placed on the top of a podium made of dark chocolate and covered in multi-coloured sprinkles. A trophy appeared above her and fell into her arms, and all Lemona could do was gape as she stared at it. To say she was shocked would have been a cruel understatement. She was almost afraid to look away from it or blink, thinking that if she took her eyes off of the thing for even a second it would disappear and she would find herself in a dream. Finally her body's urges took over and she had to blink a couple of times, and the joy inside of her intensified when her eyes opened to find the trophy still gripped in her sweaty hands.

Holding it even tighter then she had held the steering wheel of her cart, she finally got the courage to break her gaze away from it and look at the gamer who she saw giving one of her friends a high-five. "Yes!" she heard her say, and the look of accomplishment on her face only made Lemona feel happier.

But how had this been possible? Sneaking a look down at the second-place spot on the podium, she saw Vanellope staring up at her proudly. There was knowledge in her eyes, and when she noticed Lemona staring, she gave her a thumbs-up, almost as though she and the other racers knew something that she didn't.

Looking back at the Moppet Girl, Lemona suddenly felt a light bulb turn on in her brain. "Wait a minute…They were all going easy on me!" The entire purpose of the game of Sugar Rush was to allow the gamer to make it as far as possible, and it had been clear to everybody that if Lemona became the chosen avatar, which was very likely because she was a new playable character, there was a good chance that she wouldn't be able to do that. So everybody had gone easy on her, making simple mistakes that they wouldn't normally do to allow her to fulfill that purpose. There was a good chance that they had done it to make her happy too.

Now that the events in the race were making sense, Lemona's eyes darted down, meeting Vanellope's. "Thank you," she mouthed humbly, and Vanellope nodded once in acknowledgement, smiling softer than usual.

"Look guys!" The sound of Moppet Girl's voice again made Lemona turn back to see a grin of astonishment on the child's face. "She said thank you! Almost as if she was thanking me! These are some incredible graphics!"

As Moppet Girl continued to go on about the game, Lemona realized something.

She had thanked Vanellope for telling everybody to go easy on her, but there was still one person she hadn't thanked yet.

Once the arcade was closed again and Vanellope had helped her eat and digest a couple of strands of black liquorice, before anybody else could come up to her to congratulate her, Lemona tore off in her cart towards the castle. Entering inside, she took the path that had become so well known to her, down the hallways and a set of stairs until she was in front of the one person she had to and wanted to talk to the most.

"Lemona!" Leaping up off of his seat, the person's surprise was clear in his words and on his face, though it wasn't near as clear as his delight to see her. "You came back!"

"I haven't changed my mind," Lemona responded curtly, holding her hands behind her back. She mentally cursed herself for sounding so rude when she spoke, but she had to make her point very clear. She tried to do so by holding herself up very stiffly and not shuffling her feet uncomfortably, and was thankful that she wasn't stuttering. But she still found her voice lowering, though she made sure to sound firm, to prove her decisions were final. "You know, about becoming sour. I'm not changing the way I am. So don't expect me to come back once I'm done here."

"Oh." The disappointment in Turbo's voice was also clear; he'd practically shouted it out for the world to hear. Lemona was thankful when he lowered his head, because then it made it harder for her to see the glitch proof chain that had been locked around his neck, just one of the many security measures Vanellope had taken to ensure that he couldn't escape again.

When he spoke again, it was as though he was trying to sound like he hadn't been so hopeful. "No, of course not." An awkward silence filled the fungeon, only to be broken when he spoke again. "So what are you doing here then?"

"I came down here to give you this." Bringing her hands out from behind her back, Lemona revealed what she'd been hiding: a golden first place trophy. Though it was quite big, she found a way to squeeze it between the jail cell's bars and into Turbo's chained together hands.

Though Turbo took it, he looked as though he didn't want to. But Lemona started speaking before he could protest. "Don't even think about trying to give it back. I won't take it. It's yours. My own little way of saying thank you."

"Th-thank you?" repeated Turbo, looking up at her with bewilderment in his chocolate puddle eyes. "What are you thanking me for?"

"Look," responded Lemona, trying not to sound too mushy. "You may have taken advantage of me and corrupted my code so that you could take over the game, but you also believed in me. Your teachings allowed me to actually get into a race car even though my driving code got deleted a long time ago. Now that I'm back to normal, I think it's been growing back slowly, though I'm never going to be completely glitch-free. If I hadn't met you and felt the thrills of driving, that probably wouldn't be happening right now. I would have lived my life believing that driving simply wasn't a part of my code and that I had no purpose. So, I figure, now that I can drive, my first first place trophy should go to you."

Once the trophy had been completely pressed into Turbo's grip, Lemona took her hands out of the cell and backed off, now ready to leave. "Good-bye Turbo." By that time her throat felt like it was closing in on itself, and she knew she had to get out of their before the tears started flowing and she looked weak. This was all for the best, she tried to convince herself. The less time she spent down in the fungeon with Turbo, the less willing she'd be to rethink her lifestyle. And that was best for the game and for her. That was what she wanted.

As she turned around and started to leave, keeping her movement to a walk and not a run like she wanted to, Turbo's voice echoed behind her.

"You know, you're not half bad, kid."

Even though she didn't want to, Lemona found her head turning back to look at him one last time. The look on his face was not at all what she had expected. He was no longer disappointed; instead, it looked as though he could read her mind and he understood why she was doing what she was doing. He was upset, there was no doubt about that. But he was also proud of her, and that overshadowed his sadness. He respected her decision. Knowing this allowed the lumps in Lemona's throat to disappear, and she gave him a final small smile before walking out of the fungeon for the last time. And as she made her way out of the castle so that she could meet up with the other racers and her friends from the other games, there was only one thing on her mind:

"Everything is going to be alright."

_**And that's the end! Sob! Thank you all again very much for all of your support and feedback. Like Vanellope's medal to Ralph says, you're my heroes! Have a great day! I look forward to reading the reviews from you guys, and if you manage to get other people on this site to read this, that'll be great too. Until next time, I encourage you all to stay sweet! Farewell for now! **_

_**Sincerely, girlpandagreenlime :D**_


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